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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28785909">Scenes from Sleepy Peak High</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Countbleck/pseuds/Countbleck'>Countbleck</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Camp Camp (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Football, High School, M/M, Multi, Near Future, Sports camp, dadvid</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 07:47:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>24,850</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28785909</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Countbleck/pseuds/Countbleck</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Some stories from the lives of the campers during their time in high school. Mostly focusing on presmax. Also where the campers keep some of their traits from the butterfinger effect.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Harrison &amp; Science Camp Neil (Camp Camp), Preston Goodplay/Max</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Play of the Game</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Thanks dad”, Max would never get used to that. David had driven him to the high school stadium so he could watch the big game. David was just proud max was willing to go to a school event, but Max had his own reasons to go.</p><p>It was 8:00, about half an hour before the game started and it was already quite dark out. Max really wanted to get a good seat. He was the only one in the group that could make it today. He hadn’t missed a game all year. He understand why everyone else couldn’t make it, Nikki and Neil were on a family trip, Space kid got to go see a space launch, and the rest had much less interesting excuses for not being here today, but Max was.</p><p>Max walked up to the ticket both, like he had every other week, and handed in his ticket. “I swear this thing bleeds me dry but I guess it’s worth it” Max muttered underneath his breath putting his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. Walking along the railing he went to look for a seat close to the field, right near the end zone so he could hopefully see him make one of those wonderful plays he does at least once a game. Just thinking about how amazing he was mad Max blush just the tiniest bit. </p><p>Max got into his seat and began to settle down. “Jesus, I’m gonna have to just sit here forever” Max complained, as he usually did, to himself “All just to actually be able to get a seat that’s actually half decent”. Max always thought that since his boyfriend was on the team he should at least be allowed to get whatever seat he wanted, but for some goddamn reason it didn’t work like that. </p><p>The marching band had started practicing just a few minutes after Max found his seat. They were loud. Really loud. As always. Trying to tune out the annoying high school musicians (that he was going to have to listen to all game anyway) Max thought about the last few months. </p><p>Getting ready for high school wasn’t that hard, especially since David was so enthusiastic about helping Max. He was a teacher there after all, and knew exactly how to prepare for the challenges Max could face. That preparation may have included buying fifty boxes of pencils, as both he and Max forgot them constantly. Regardless Max found that David truly helped him succeed so far this year. While he also lived with his dad during middle school, Max didn’t do so well in that godforsaken place that would make the woodscouts look like weenie hut jr.’s. </p><p>Thinking away from hell on earth, Max brought into his mind how lucky he was to be able to go to school with all of the old camp kids (not that he would ever admit he liked that fact). It brought him some type of closeness that he never got anywhere else until David adopted him, and even then Camp Campbell was the reason behind that. </p><p>Max sighed to himself, he was getting too caught up in his emotions, which never seems to end well. “What time is it anyway, this game better fucking start soon” Max angrily grumbled to himself, checking his phone in the process. “8:25, this better be a good one or I’m making him get me pizza after”. Max knew full well they were getting pizza either way.</p><p>As the game was getting closer to being started the announcer began his introduction to the game. “Hello everyone, it’s Shakes Bayres here tonight to commentate the Sleepy Peak vs Conneaut championship game!”. Max looked back at the little station that held the announcer. He didn’t mind the commentary much, but he just wished Shakes could stand to *not* yell into the microphone every single time. </p><p>Despite Max’s wishes the commentary continued much the same way. “First up to play are the Conneaut Commodore’s and their star quarterback Kirby Hilliard. Hilliard drops back to throw and it’s PICKED OFF BY NURFINGTON!!!!” The announcer got even louder then before “HE’S TAKING IT BACK FOR SIX!!!! And you could not ask for a better start for the Sleepy Peak Mountaineers”. Max always found enjoyment when Nurf was able to make a big move like that, especially since football ended up being his way to take out some aggression. Seeing him happy was just another little upside to going through all the hell to get to one of these games.</p><p>After Nurfs pickoff not much else happened in the first half, at least according to Max (who may have been distracted by his favorite player). Since it was halftime he was going to go get something from the concessions stand while he had a chance. Max took off his blue hoody, placed it on his seat (so none of those damn woodscouts could steal it), and began his way down to the concessions. </p><p>Max got in line and waited to get his snacks, and as he waited he began to think about his first time to an event with David.</p><p>“Alright Max, since this is our first bonding experience you can get whatever you want!!!”, David was glimmering with joy for the experience.<br/>
“Ok freak-show, let me see..... I guess I’ll just get a soda and a hotdog and I guess some sno-caps too”. Max wasn’t showing it but he really enjoyed being able to get whatever he wanted, and David’s company. He wasn’t really accustomed to either. He thought to himself, in the very back of his mind, that he might actually really enjoy this. </p><p>“Next”, the cashier snapped Max out of his memories. “Hi, I’ll get a hotdog some sno-caps and a Diet Pepsi please”. He usually got the same thing every week and today was no exception, he couldn’t say no to his favorite combination. “Ok, that’ll be $8”. Max pulled out a crumpled $10 from his pocket and handed it to the girl working the register, David gave it to him of course even though Max insisted he didn’t need it. Max picked up his goods and started making his way back to his seat.</p><p>The game started back up just as Max was putting his hoodie back on. Getting comfortable in his seat once again, he put the box of candy into his pocket, and unwrapped the hotdog from its metallic paper prison. Max began enjoying his hotdog and soda when he decided to look at what the score was “35-20 Commodores... eh we’ll come back soon it’s not like we’ll have much trouble, especially with my cutie on the team”.</p><p>With only under a minute left in the game Max was half right, the score was now 35-30. So close to the end of the championship game, something had to happen or Sleepy Peak High would go home empty handed. </p><p>Then Max started paying attention to what Shakes had to say. “With Sleepy Peak on 4th and 15 on their own 40 it might take a miracle to win this game. The ball is snapped to Dayton he drops back... throws and OH MY GOD GOODPLAY CATCHES IT, NO ONE IS NEAR HIM HE IS GOING ALL THE WAY AND THE GAME IS OVER SLEEPY PEAK WINS THE CHAMPIONSHIP!!!”. You could hear the entire stadium jumping up and down at the miracle play that just happened. </p><p>Max was focused on something slightly different however. As Preston Goodplay ran with the ball more than 50 yards his hair that flowed out of his helmet fluttered in the wind. Max always loved when it did that. He loved just about everything about Preston. </p><p>The field was stormed as soon as Preston scored the touchdown, Max making sure he was one of the first ones on it. As Preston took off his helmet to celebrate Max ran up and gave him a kiss “You fucking did it! You won the game!!”. “Did you ever doubt me Maxwell? I always make sure to make a good show of it”. Both boys were blushing at the embrace of one another. “You and your puns, if I didn’t know you better I’d say you caught that just to make the joke”. “Making a play as good as that has its upside Maxwell” Preston said his voice filled with sarcasm “If you want after our debrief the guys are all going to steak and shake, I’d say it’s about time we shared a milkshake”. Max’s blush intensified with that last comment “you sure as fuck know I wouldn’t miss that for the world”. </p><p>With the rest of the nights plans set Max left his boyfriend to celebrate the game winner with his teammates and everyone else that stormed the field. </p><p>While all the celebrations on the field took place (which took a long, long, loooooong time) Max waited by the railing to the bleachers. It was a clear night so he had a chance to look up at the moon and the stars. They always looked nice, it reminded him of those nights at camp campbell. “You ready to go my dear Maxwell?” Preston was still in his padded jersey carrying his helmet at his side, his hair fluttering just slightly in the wind. </p><p>“Of course I am, you on the other hand better not be taking me out like that” Max quipped with a smirk. “Oh of course, you know quite well how fast I can get out of this thing, just wait here and we’ll be on our way in a minute!”. Preston ran to the locker room to change into his regular clothes, he may have ran faster now then during the game. Max on the other hand was debating whether or not he should time how long it’ll take. Either way Max was excited, they hadn’t had a date in forever, and he was looking forward to that milkshake.</p><p>Within two minutes Preston was back, almost record time. “Alright Maxwell, let’s get to my car”. The two walked into the parking lot and got into Prestons car, it was a bit old but Preston loved having his own ride, especially since his grandmother drove so slowly. The boys both got into the car, started it, and began to drive their way to the steak and shake nearby. “I hope you don’t mind taking the long way there, I want to be fashionably late” Preston said smirking at Max. “Of course, you’re just as much of a drama queen as you’ve always been”, Max said sarcastically as he smirked back. </p><p>About 20 minutes later the two finished the 5 minute drive between the school football field and the fast casual restaurant. As the two got into the restaurant they saw the whole team spread around. Nurf and Dayton, who were sitting right near the entrance, waived the two boys over to talk.</p><p>“Hey guys I see you took your time getting here, Preston’s idea right?” Nurf said jokingly. “Anyway Preston make sure to treat yourself tonight, you deserve it”. “He definitely does dude, I just wanted to thank you again for playing your hardest out there, since it was probably my last game here, hell, I should probably buy all three of you dinner for all you did tonight” Dayton said as he mixed his milkshake. </p><p>“I can see why the two of them would deserve that, but what the hell do you think I did” Max cracked. “Cmon even you have to know Preston does better when he’s trying to impress you”, Dayton chuckled out as Max and Preston tried to hide their blushing. “Anyway, you two lovebirds better get a booth, we saved you one since you’re late as always Mr. Dramatic”.</p><p>The two thanked them for saving some seats and shuffled their way over to take them. “I’m glad they always look out for us, no matter how much you try to sink us trying to be dramatic” Max said with maximum snark. “Oh shush, I know you like the attention too, anyway what milkshake do you want?”. “I’ll probably get a mint chocolate chip, what’re you gonna get?” Max asked as he looked through the long menu. “I’m not sure, I’m definitely getting some fries though, always need some salt to counter the sugar”.</p><p>After a minute of looking at the menus a waitress arrived. “Hello my name is Ryan and I’ll be your waitress tonight, can I take your order?” The waitress asked looking down at the boys. “Yes thank you, we’ll get one large mint chocolate chip milkshake and an order of small fries”. “Alright we’ll have that right out for you!” The waitress said, immediately going into the back to begin preparing the boys food. “Wait what are you having?” Max said in confusion. “Oh my dear Maxwell, when I said we’d share a milkshake, I wasn’t lying”, Preston said with a big dopey grin on his face, knowing he’d put together a big romantic moment for the young couple.</p><p>Hearing Prestons answer Max blushed considerably, thinking about how much he wanted that milkshake out fast so the moment he was so suddenly excited for could happen. After a few minutes of the boys flirting with each other, the milkshake and fries arrived. “Oo wait!” Max yelped as he remembered reaching into his pocket, “one last touch”. Max pulled out his box of sno-caps and placed three on top of the milkshake. “I know we both like them, so it might be a nice lil extra treat”. “A perfect addition Maxwell, exactly the reason I fell in love with you”, Preston said, his own blush increasing, “now let us dig in”. </p><p>Both boys put straws into the glass, and slowly drank the milkshake. The boys looked into each other’s eyes, and both thought the same thing, “Fuck I want to kiss him right now”. Neither would though (at least not yet) as they enjoyed the romantic nature of the moment. Even the loudness of being in the same room as a high school football team couldn’t distract them from each other’s gaze. </p><p>As they finished the milkshake all that was left was the cherry, which Preston quickly scooped up. Placing the stem in his teeth he told max, “If you want the cherry you’ll have to come get it”. Without hesitation Max leaned across the table and kissed Preston, and after he did, sat back down leaving just the cherry stem sitting in Prestons lips. As Preston sat there stunned, Max said blushedly, “I couldn’t let that chance pass me up, how’d you like it”. “Hopefully as much as you did”, Preston quipped, still a little stunned at what had just happened.</p><p>Preston shaked off the amazement he felt for the romantic moment Max had just provided him (or at least as much as he could at the moment). “After we’re done, would you want to go stargazing?” Preston asked, trying (and failing) to hide his blush from his boyfriend. “I wouldn’t want to end the night any other way”.</p><p>After the two left (Dayton had ended up paying), they got into Prestons car and drove up to a nice grassy hill, usually used by people to stargaze with their significant others. Tonight, however, it was just Max and Preston. Preston put romantic music on the radio, and opened up the sunroof of his car so they could see the clear night sky. The two boys sat their seats back and  stared at the beauty that was the night sky. “You know, I really love you Preston.... I can’t believe just how in love I am”, Max confessed playing with the hood of his hoody. “Maxwell, I really love you too, I always have”. </p><p>The boys looked at each other and smiled, then went back to look at the sky. They both saw a shooting star and wished. For what exactly might never be known, but that night all they thought about was each other. Soon enough the boys fell asleep, being rocked the the sweet lullaby of the music, and the twinkling lights in the sky. That night they both dreamed of two things, each other, and their days at camp Campbell.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. From Dawn....</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A look into a regular school day for Max and the gang</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Beep beep beep beep. Max’s alarm went off. It was 6am and the start of another miserable school day. Max sat up and rubbed his eyes. He really needed some coffee, and he missed having one right next to his bed. </p><p>David knocked on the door and poked his head in “Hey there Max!”, David said in his always cheery tone as Max hid his head under the covers “I hope you’re ready for another spectacular day of school!!!! I’ll have breakfast ready in 10 minutes, I hope you’re craving wafffflessss!!”.</p><p>As soon as Max’s door was closed again he poked his head out of his blankets. “No matter how many years I live with him I can understand how he’s that excited about waking up..... though I guess I’m not even sure if he sleeps...”. Max took his covers off completely and swung his legs off the side of the bed, even at 15 his feet couldn’t reach the ground. </p><p>Max hopped off his bed and walked over to his dresser, getting out a pair of pants and his signature blue hoodie. He put on his pants as he looked in the mirror taking note of the dark circles under his eyes. “Man I have got to stop staying up so late texting Preston.... Probably won’t tho” he smirked at himself in the mirror. After a little bit of trouble getting his hoodie on (his head always got a bit stuck) he went out his room and started going downstairs. </p><p>“Great timing Max!! The waffles are almost ready!! I’ll bring them out when they’re done!”. Max acknowledged what David told him as he poured himself a cup of coffee. He really needed that right now. After getting the drink as bitter as his soul (though both Preston and David would disagree) Max walked out into the living room and sat on the couch next to the table. </p><p>“Hey Max, how’re you?”. As Max expected Harrison was already out there dressed in his usual getup, a yellow dress shirt, black vest, and small top hat. “I haven’t had any coffee yet so pretty fucking terrible, how about you?” Max answered in a witty tone, as he usually did in the morning. “I’m alright, not looking forward to school though, I have a test in chemistry”. “You’ll do fine on that, I know Neil’s been tutoring you, unless that’s not why he keeps staying over late” Max loved poking fun at Harrison’s crush, it almost made up for the fact that he still hadn’t drank his coffee yet. “He’s been helping me study!” Harrison said while pouting “besides you know I always get stressed when I’m under pressure”. Max took a sip of his coffee, Harrison wasn’t wrong, but they both knew it was all in good fun anyway.</p><p>Soon enough David came out with three plates full of waffles topped high with chocolate chips, strawberry’s, and whipped cream. “Dig in you two! I made them with extra love today! Aw who am I kidding I always make them with extra love!”. The two brothers thanked David for making breakfast. Max in particular, though he wouldn’t admit it, really liked David’s cooking, the waffles were perfect being golden brown on the outside and nice and fluffy on the inside. </p><p>As David was cutting up his waffles, he seemed to recollect something and stated “Oh! By the way Gwen had to go to work early today so I’ll be driving the two of you to school, so make sure to be ready by 6:45!!”. The two siblings looked at each other, both thinking the same thing, that’s means we’re gonna be at school over an hour early. Harrison shrugged “Ok, I guess that give me some more time to study”. Max also shrugged off the news quipping with a devilish grin “I’ll just burn some time trying to break in somewhere new, maybe the theater’s prop closet”. </p><p>“Can’t your boyfriend just get you in?” Harrison said poking fun at Max. “Yeah, probably” Max said leaning back a bit and trying to avoid blushing “but I want to try at it anyway, might need that stuff when he’s not around someday”. David was half paying attention to the brothers conversation, they often had ones like this poking fun at each other, and he always made sure that they were still just having fun. “Just make sure you don’t get in trouble Max, I’m sure you’ll be fine though! And Harrison, I wish you the best for that test, I’m sure you’ll do amazingly!!!”. </p><p>David had the same huge grin on as he always did, even when he was driving his kids to school/ driving himself to work. Harrison was in the front seat and looking out at the forest as they drove. Max however, was focused on his phone.</p><p>My lil grump &lt;3 : David’s driving us in today so I’m getting to school early</p><p>Triple threat &gt;:3 : Oof, what ever are you going to do my dear Maxwell, some sort of mischief?</p><p>My lil grump &lt;3 : I’m thinking of seeing if I can break into the prop room, either that or finding a place we can smooch &gt;:3<br/>
Either way I’ll be in the theatre room before school starts </p><p>Triple threat &gt;:3 : Oh of course you’d do that, I’d rather you do the latter though.  And I’d be delighted to see you before school, but I don’t think I can make it today. Remember I have practice after school if you want to watch, maybe we can have some fun if David’s fine with me driving you home afterwards.</p><p>My lil grump &lt;3 : I’ll have to ask him later, I’m definitely down to hang tho. I’ll hit you up at lunch</p><p>Max put his phone away, and looked at the fast approaching (but still very within the speed limit) silhouette of the high school. It was still pretty dark outside so all that could really be seen was the outline of the school. As the car got closer the schools sign could be seen more clearly “Sleepy Peak High” where most of Max’s days are spent.</p><p>David pulled in to park in the faculty lot, further away from the entrance so that older teachers had an easier time getting in. Everyone got out of the car and walked into the schools entrance. “Ok you two, I have to go get ready for classes, I’d suggest you both put your things in home room before doing anything else just so your home room teacher doesn’t mistake you for late!” With that David waved goodbye and walked off to the science hall. </p><p>The two brothers, now alone, looked at each other and began walking the opposite way from where David had. They had to go to their home room which was in the history floor, room 315. They both made their way over to the room, chatting on the way. They got to their room after walking up three flights of stairs and entered, finding the door unlocked but without the teacher Mr. Schmidt inside. The room was built for about 24 students, having 6 large black tables that sat four students each. </p><p>“Well I’m gonna go down to the theatre room” Max said, dropping his backpack on the ground next to one of the seats “good luck with the studying”. “Thanks” Harrison responded, tossing his hat onto the middle of the table and setting his book bag next to Max’s “I hope whatever scheme you have for the theater works out, especially if your just going down there to see your hubby”. Harrison made sure to put some extra snark into that last comment as he wiggled his eyebrows up and down. “We’re not married..... yet, but I already told you I’m just going down there to break into the prop closet” with that Max stuck his tongue out at his brother and left the room.</p><p>Max was sorta lying earlier, he did want to figure a way into the prop closet by himself, but today he just wanted to swing by the theater room to see what they were going to be doing that afternoon. Making his way down the flights of stairs Max finally reached the bottom floor, where the theatre rested. To his surprise (and dismay) there was a note on the door which read: “I’m sick today, please meet in  room 214 for any classes - Mr. Miller”. Max was stunned “Well shit, I guess there goes my plans”. The only reason Max didn’t attempt to break in (as he planned for the prop closet) is the theatre room had a glass door, which could get.... messy if not properly dealt with.  </p><p>Max began sulking away from the theatre room door, and started to walk towards the cafeteria. It was around 7:15, so he still had 45 minutes until homeroom started. As he got there he saw two people he wasn’t expecting so early. “Hey! Nikki! Hand me back my muffin!!!” Neil was yelling at his sister, Max could only guess she was “swapping” food with him again. “Nah, you’ll get whatever you want outa my lunch, but I need this muffin now!” Nikki said while pushing Neils attempts to reclaim his muffin away. </p><p>“Hey guys, what are you doing here so early” Max said, stopping the two siblings from fighting temporarily. “We could ask the same of you” Nikki said slightly muffled as she stuffed the muffin into her mouth. “David had to drive us in, and I’m here cause the theater room is locked” Max said as he sat next to his two friends. “Oh that’s fair, Neil was gonna go help Harrison during home room and I wanted to get breakfast, which Neil happily provided” Nikki was smiling at the last comment. “More like against my will, anyway if Harrison is here already too then I’ll go ahead and see him. Wanna come too?” Neil asked gesturing to Max. “Yeah sure, my plans for the morning were shot anyway so I’ll just get ahead on homework while you two “study” like you usually do”. </p><p>With that the two boys started walking to Max’s home room, leaving Nikki to finish her breakfast. As they walked up the stairs Max struck up a conversation, “Sooo, when are you gonna ask him out? It’s been a long time coming”. Neil looked back, blushed then looked forward again, “I’m not going to ask him out, just because I help him study does not mean I have a crush on him!”. Max smiled, Neil was clearly lying, as usual with this. “Ok ok, just make sure he does well on that test, if we both get good grades David’s gonna take us camping and I’m not missing out on that”. Neil rolled his eyes “Sure, and I’ll have you know no one I’ve tutored has gotten worse than a B on a test, so you’ll have nothing to worry about”.</p><p>The two finally reached Max’s home room (three flights of stairs was never fun). As they entered the room they saw that Mr. Schmidt was there reading the school newspaper. “Hi Mr. Schmidt, I’m gonna be here this morning to help Harrison study if that’s alright”. The teacher looked up from his paper “That’s fine Neil, I’ll go ahead and let your teacher know you’ll be here. Make sure Harrison is all studied up there!” Mr. Schmidt laughed a bit with the last comment, as he usually did at the end of every conversation. </p><p>As his brother and best friend started studying (and low-key flirting) Max we to on his phone to pass the rest of the time. After a bit of looking at cute dog videos (and an article in the local paper about Prestons football heroics) he switched to looking at his schedule for the day. </p><p>Period 1. American History </p><p>Period 2. Statistics </p><p>Period 3. English</p><p>Period 4. Environmental Science </p><p>Period 5. Lunch</p><p>Period 6. Study Hall</p><p>Period 7. Theatre </p><p>Max was still a little bit bitter he didn’t get the same theatre class as Preston, but he wanted to get more into it for his sweetie anyway. It was a pretty good schedule, especially for a Monday, and while Max never looked forward to school, today seemed like it would be tolerable.</p><p>The school bell rang, as everyone got in their seats to hear the morning announcements. “Good morning everyone,  Shakes Bayres here for the morning announcements. First up lunch today is burritos, chicken strips, or pizza. The Sleepy Peak Mountaineers would like to thank everyone who attended last Friday’s championship game, and invite everyone to the charity game at the end of the month. Also the improv club will be having a meeting today after school. Along with that Principle Daniels would like to remind everyone that the winter dance is coming up, so remember to buy your tickets. Lastly the school would like us to remind everyone to bring in any extra winter coats they may have for the donation drive, thank you for listening to the morning announcements and have a great day!!”.</p><p>With that the bell rang and everyone got up to start going to first period. Before he left Max stopped Harrison and said “hey, good luck on the test today”. Harrison looked at him with a smile “Thanks, I hope your classes go well”. With that they both split up to go to class.</p><p>Max walked next door to his first period history class. It was American history with Ms. Sierra. Max was the first one in the room, so he walked to the back to sit at his desk. After he sat down he picked his notebook out of his backpack, this wasn’t a particularly difficult class, but he knew he needed to take notes to do well. After a few minutes of doodling in his notebook other students started trickling in, one of which was space kid. Space kid wore what he usually did, a NASA t-shirt and white jacket that sorta looked like a space suit (if you used your imagination, something that space kid did often) along with a pair of normal blue jeans. “Hey Max! You excited for class today? We’re getting closer and closer to the space race!!!” The excitement beaming off of space kid could be felt by Max, who was actually surprised he couldn’t sense space kid as soon as he entered the floor. “We still have to get through Vietnam first, but I’m sure I’ll humor you once we talk about the moon” Max said rolling his eyes in jest, he kinda liked space kids spunk now, but he needed to keep some level of pessimism.</p><p>Soon after space kid sat next to Max, Dolph walked into the room. “Hi friends! How are you today?” Dolph asked in his usual German accent. He was dressed the same way he usually was, semi-formally with a black and green color palate. “Alright for a Monday” Max answered while space kid chimed in “Great!! Especially since we’re getting closer and closer to learning about space!!!”. Dolph set his things on the desk in front of Max, “zat is good mein friends, I hope today’s class is successful”. To Max Dolph and space kid were both very similar, somewhat overly cheery and hyper focused on certain things. He liked them both, even if they could be clueless, because no matter what they were still good friends to him.</p><p>Soon enough Ms. Sierra started class, teaching about the causes of the Vietnam war and the slow buildup of arms in South Vietnam. Max payed attention as much as anyone can expect from a teenager, and it’s not like he didn’t do well in the class, at this point he had an A, and he wrote his notes diligently while having some side conversations with his camp friends. After the class ended Max said goodbye to both space kid and Dolph and made his way off to his next class.</p><p>Max reached the classroom to his statistics class within a few minutes. He was never the first one in the room, and it seemed today Neil had beaten him there. “I see you were a bit faster today, how did the study session with Harrison go?”. Neil looked up from his desk “Pretty good, it was mostly just a quick review, after how many times I came over to help him I’m sure he’ll do fine. Did you do the homework?”. Max sat down and got his papers out of his bag “Yeah, it was boring as always but I got it done, I just hope today’s class will be over quick”. Neil gave a smirk “I wouldn’t exactly count on that since he told us to bring our calculators today”. Max sighed and began to prepare for his most boring class.</p><p>Even though the class was only an hour it felt like three. Max was relieved for it to finally be over. He said his pleasantries to Neil and started goin on his way to his next class, English. The English room was on the same floor, though a few doors down from his math class, so it didn’t take Max long to get to it. Like with many of his other classes as soon as he got in Max made a beeline for the back corner desk. Everyone else trickled into the classroom until right before the bell, which was when Nurf and Dayton made their way into the room, and went straight back to sit next to Max. </p><p>“Hey you two, cutting it close as always I see. What was it this time the janitors closet or the weight room?”. Max always loved poking fun at those two. “Aw shut up Max, we all know what happens when the theatre room is locked up so don’t even try it” Nurf retorted with a smirk on his face showing he had no ill will with the comment. Both Dayton and Max let out little bits of laughs, with Max also blushing a small amount. “Alright, alright, anyway what did you guys think of the first chapter? I think it’s been a nice change of pace from the usual boring stuff they have us read”. Dayton got out his copy of The Great Gatsby and said “I’m not sure, I’m loving the 20s theme, but I’m just not that into it yet”. Max nodded at the comment, school assigned books were notoriously hit or miss, which usually just translated to missing, but he had some hope for this one. Either way the teacher began talking about it and Max tuned in to what she had to say.</p><p>After a long discussion on the cultural impact of the 1920s Max heard the bell that let him know he could go to one of his favorite classes of the day, environmental science. He rushed all the way across school to get to the classroom and got to his seat in under a minute. David barely even had time to react. “Alright there Max, love to see that enthusiasm about nature!! I’m guessing you want to hold Mr. Sprinkles again, am I right?”. Max looked at his dad in excitement “You know it teach give ‘em to me!”. Max was enamored when David pulled out the medium sized snake and put it on his shoulder. “I know you’ll be careful, but make sure you give him extra love today since he hasn’t seen anyone since Friday!”.</p><p>Max just let the snake slither on his shoulders. He loved being in this class cause it let him just vibe with some of his favorite (non-dog) animals. The classroom was just filled with different plants and animals, there were tanks along all the walls with fish, frogs, turtles, and snakes. Cacti made up one corner of the room, and more tropical plants were right next to David’s desk. If you didn’t know it was a classroom you could easily mistake the room for an animal sanctuary.</p><p>Suddenly Nikki burst into the room, “Awww darn it!!” Nikki cursed to herself “you got Mr. Sprinkles again”. Max gave a smirk as he raised up his favorite snake, “Yeah, you gotta get here faster than that to get him on a Monday”. Nikki pouted “Aww c’mon David errr Mr. Greenwood..... David can I have him tomorrow?”. David stood up and walked over to the pair “Of course Nikki, I like to make sure everyone here gets to share the wonders of nature, especially the animals that come in it!”. With that Nikki sat next to Max and got into a staring contest with his shoulder snake.</p><p>While Max and Nikki were having fun with Mr. Sprinkles, the rest of the class came in and got into their seats. Soon enough the bell rang and David began class. “Hello everyone I hope you all had a great weekend! Today just make sure to take care of your stations as usual, if you need any help I’ll be at my desk!”. With that David sat down at his desk and watered some of the plants next to him. Max and Nikki both had the same station this week (stations switched bi-weekly) and all they had to do was feed and count the tropical fish in the big tank at the back of the room. After recording how many fish there were (8, one more than last week) they fed them and just watched as the medium sized fish pecked at the fish food floating around the aquarium.</p><p>Everyone else was still doing their animal care for the day, so Max and Nikki decided to keep playing with their snake. Max always loved letting slither on him, it was just great in general that his dad had access to so many animals. Thinking of David, Max remembered something he needed to ask him. “Hey Nikki, hold Mr. Sprinkles for a minute” Max said handing the snake to her, “I need to talk to David for a minute”. The girl wasn’t complaining as she let the snake do snake things as snakes do. Max walked up to David’s desk and got his attention, “Hey David, quick question, can I stay after school for the Improv club stuff, Preston said he’d drive me back after”. David stopped watering his plants for a second to say “Sure Max!! Tell him I say hi, and invite him over to dinner while your at it!”.</p><p>Max nodded in affirmation, he liked how approving David was of Preston, of course he’s known him just as long as Max has. David just loved how much Preston got Max involved in well.... everything! He could always trust those two to have a good time, whether that be at one of Prestons football games, or just a regular date at the movie theater. David was a proud father to have a kid in such a nice relationship like Max.</p><p>After getting his answer (and talking a bit about how the rest of the day was going to go) Max went back to where Nikki was sitting. “Thank you for keeping Mr. Sprinkles warm”, Max said picking up the snake and putting it on his shoulders. “No problamo, just make sure I get some more time with him later this week” Nikki said with a wink. </p><p>After some more time with Nikki and Mr. Sprinkles class came to an end. And with the bell, Max and Nikki walked down to the cafeteria. The Sleepy Peak High cafeteria wasn’t the nicest in the world, but it definitely wasn’t as bad as Camp Campbells excuse for food. It had three lines, one for pizza, one for the food of the day (chicken strips today), and one for discount subway type sandwich bar, which had burritos today. Max got in line for the pizza, while Nikki went for the chicken strips, both knowing they’d meet back up at their usual table.</p><p>After getting through the line and paying, Max made his way to the table. A few of his friends were already sitting there. Neil was on the far right talking with Harrison who was sitting across from him, next to him was Nerris, who was writing down furiously in her notebook. Max sat down two seats to the left of Neil, “Hey guys, how’ve you all been, how’s the test gone Harrison?”. Everyone acknowledged Max’s presence and Nerris waved, Harrison answered “I think it went well, won’t find out till Friday though”. Max nodded at the comment, “Ah, well it’s good at least that you think it went well”. Soon after the entire group could feel the quickly approaching presence of Nikki. “Hey everyone, how’re you doing Nerris I haven’t seen you yet?”. </p><p>Nerris set down her pencil and rested her chin on her hand “I’m doing great thanks for asking, would you want to do another D&amp;D session with me and Ered sometime this week?”. Nikki was almost bouncing with excitement “Would I ever!! Sign me up right away I would love to!”. While the two girls planned their next session Max spotted something out of the corner of his eye, something handsome. </p><p>Preston waltzed over from the cafeteria line with a plate of pizza in his hands (as overdramatized as possible). He sat right across from Max, “Hello my darling Maxwell, how are you today, have you any news from David?”. Max set down his slice of pizza, “I do, he said I can stay... as long as you come home for dinner”. Max wiggled his eyebrows at Preston, seeing him blush ever so slightly. “Oh I would be delighted, wouldn’t want to deny my future father-in-law the privilege of dinner”. Preston smirked at Max, they both knew he would come, as it was always a blast at David’s. </p><p>After the two lovebirds stopped flirting the group ate their lunches and chatted amongst themselves. Harrison tried showing everyone card tricks, as usual, and in general fun was had, at least as much as you can have in a school cafeteria. Eventually it got close to the end of the period and Preston made sure to tell Max “Remember to go to the auditorium after school, it should be fun” the bell then rang, “I’ll see you then love”. With that all of the gang split up to go to their next classes. </p><p>Harrison and Max walked over to their study hall classroom, one in which Mr. Brook was in. He was a cool teacher, had a fridge stocked with sodas for kids having a bad day, and in general goofed off with the students during his study hall classes. He even had nicer padded chairs which the two boys were always fans of. Also in the room were Shakes and Ered. That was the whole class, which was nice to have once a day. It was mostly chill for all involved. “Hey Ered how’s it hanging?” Harrison asked sitting at the table in the back of the small room. “It’s hanging, just trying to coast until graduation so, y’know”. With that Ered put on her headphones and everyone else got their phones out to play with. </p><p>Nothing much else happened in the class, except Harrison showing Max a new magic trick video and Mr. Brook going on a weird rant about pancakes. Max said bye to his three classmates and teacher and made his way down to the theatre room. After getting down there Max had realized his mistake “Oh shit that’s right, I gotta go to 214 today”. Max made his way to the new room just before the bell rang. Being the last one there he could see that everyone else in his class was there, most of whom he’d be seeing more of after school. On the board there was just the note “Remember to pick out roles you’d like to audition for, for Daytime Theatre Company’s production of Twelfth Night”. </p><p>Max was still thinking about what he would want to do for that play, he’d need to consult Preston for which characters he’d be best as. Either way, Max walked to the back of the room to a desk put in his headphones and began listening to a production of the play, he wanted to study it well before he asked anything of Preston for it. </p><p>After the hour or so class took, Max paused the video he was watching just in time to hear the bell ring. With that he packed up his things in his backpack and exited the room. Max walked off towards the auditorium for what was sure to be a very eventful evening with Preston.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This ended up being a lot longer than I expected, so long there’s gonna be a part 2! Hopefully I’ll get that out soon enough!!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. To Dusk</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>That night after school Preston and Max have a nice time... both with clubs and dates</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Max was walking towards the auditorium when he pulled out his phone to text David.</p><p>Max &lt;3 &lt;3: Hey David, Preston said he’s down for dinner, what time do you want us to be there?</p><p>Tree dad: That’s great Max!! I think dinner will be around 7pm! I’ll make sure to make something special!!! Have a great time with Preston!</p><p>Max put his phone in his hoodie’s pocket and focused on the stairs he was walking down. It was nice to have a night with Preston again, even though they just had one at the beginning of the weekend. Max always just appreciated the comfort he got from being with someone that loved him so much, something that he got from David, Harrison, and Gwen too, but it felt... different from Preston. </p><p>Thinking so much about camp friends made Max want to invite them all over again, something he’d have to talk to David about planning. Either way Max wanted to see everyone together again for a bit, something that only happened once every few months in the offseason. </p><p>While Max was walking and thinking, he noticed the clock on the wall showed the time to be 3:35, meaning Max had been walking slower than he intended to, but no matter, he was already almost to the auditorium. Max could see it at the end of the hallway.</p><p>Max walked into the auditorium from the backstage entrance. It was a slightly weird room in the school. It was sort of an amphitheater, with a wide back row and rows going down in steps, with the row closest to the stage being the smallest. That row also had a small guard rail in place in order to separate the seats from the stage. Among the seats were four carpeted staircases, two on the outside edges and two near the middle separated by 8 seats that went straight from the top of the seating to on the stage. When walking in there were four visible stage exits, two next to the outside staircases, and two next to the inside staircases, all of which went underneath the audience to a preparation area for actors. </p><p>As Max walked into the room he noticed Preston sitting in the front row, leaning on the guardrail. “Hey there hot stuff, you been waiting for me?” Max said with a smirk as he approached. Preston looked up and grew a smile on his face, “My dear Maxwell I’m always waiting for you”. Preston gave a wink to Max “And anyway club won’t start until 4 so we have some time to talk about tonight”. Preston laid down on the audience seats stretching his body to cover five or six of them. Max walked over the guardrail and jokingly sat on Preston’s stomach, making him audibly gasp. ”Thats what you get for hogging all the seats” Max said sarcastically as he stood up.</p><p>Preston sat up and fluffed his hair, “Fair, but it’s better than me hogging the spotlight now isn’t it” Preston rested his chin in his hand “Now what exactly do you want to do after my club?”. Max sat down next to the handsome theater kid, “David said dinner isn’t until 7 soooo, I think we should go to Sunset Park”. As soon as Preston heard Max’s answer he turned his face away on his hand, mostly to hide how much he was blushing, “I-i think that is a splendid idea Maxwell, I couldn’t think of something better to do with my Maxy”. </p><p>Max blushed at Prestons nickname for him. “Y-yeah I thought it would be nice, sunsets are always the best, especially when watching over the water”. Max ruffled his own hair to try and calm his nerves a bit. “So what is the Improv club doing today?”, Max asked in order to make a less embarrassing conversation. Preston stood up straight and responded “Oh, that’s right! We’re thinking of holding a special event soon, running our own show of ‘whose line is it anyway?’ to raise money for the next school musical”. Preston started twisting some of his hair around his fingers, “It should be some fun for the whole club, and everyone loves watching the games”. </p><p>Max smiled at Prestons excitement, “That sounds fun, I’ll have to make sure to be there when it happens, I hope you get flustered. You’re always adorable when you get flustered”. Max had a devilish grin on his face as he got to see Prestons become a tomato. “I-i have done enough improve to not get flustered thank you very much Maxwell” Preston said assertively, followed by him whispering “but I am glad you think I’m adorable”. </p><p>“Hmphmmmm” Preston cleared his throat “Anyway, how about you play the audience for one of our improv games today, I think you’d like it”. Max smiled, “I get to control what you do for a whole 5 minutes? Even though I get to do that every Saturday night I guess I’ll give a crack at it here”. Preston blushed heavily again at Max’s comment, he always loved their make out sessions even if he had to redo his hair after them every time. </p><p>Soon enough it was 4 o’clock, and the other 5 members of the improv club came inside. “Ok people, let’s have some organized fun today. This will be our first shot at who’s line so we can be a bit more laid back than usual” Preston said announcing to the group. “Since we only have 30 minutes today, damn band practice, we will only get to do one game, which will be scenes from a hat”. Preston looked over to Max “Since we do not have any audience to put ideas into the hat, Maxwell here will be the hat”. Max perked up “And I’m a damn fine hat if you know what I mean”. </p><p>“Anyway to start me, Jack, Katy, and Bruce will be in and Eva and Dom will sit with the audience, we’ll rotate in and out after every round” With that Eva and Dom sat down in the audience with Max while the rest got set on stage. “Ok Max give us a situation”. Max grinned at himself and answered “How about... four campers trying to escape a rundown summer camp”. Preston jokingly rolled his eyes at Max, he should have known he’d bring in an inside joke. Preston started, “Man I really hate this camp, and everyone... and everything, how about we all try a convoluted way to get out of here?” Max laughed at Prestons dead on impression of his younger self, he really knew him well didn’t he? </p><p>“Yeah this place sucks, they haven’t even given me water in three weeks! How should we make our escape?” Jack said in response to Preston. “Well, I know how to hot-wire a jet if only we could find one in a backwoods place like this” said Katy pretending to kick at rocks on the ground. “You’re in luck” Bruce yelled “Cause I know that counselor Jake only drives private jets and he parked his behind the dining hall”. Preston ran over to Bruce and energetically (but still passively) said “let’s get out of this hellhole then, to Jake’s jet!... And scene, I think that first one went well, what’s next my dear Maxwell”. Max smiled at his hubby “Well... I was thinking....”</p><p>After a half hour more of wacky improv-y goodness the improv club had to leave the theater to let the band practice. “That’s a wrap everyone, I hope you all had fun, and remember to bring some ideas so we can have a more concrete plan for this whole thing”, Preston turned to Max “Darling I need to freshen up in the bathroom, would you wait for me outside?”. Max nodded and blew Preston a little kiss to his cheek making the taller boy blush a small bit. “Thank you, I’ll make sure not to keep you waiting!”. Max walked out of the theater and leaned against the wall just outside. It was still in the school, but in a more casual waiting area meant to look and feel like the real entrance of a theater. </p><p>Max fiddled with the pockets of his hoodie and decided to check his phone. He saw one notification that piqued his interest.</p><p>Disappearing act: I hope you have fun on your little date, I gotta warn you though David and Gwen are probably gonna be way too excited to see the two of you.</p><p>Mini grumpy David: They definitely are gonna be, thanks for the warning tho, if you distract them some I’ll make sure I owe you one in the future</p><p>Disappearing act has liked a text</p><p>Max shut off his phone and looked out the window, it was pretty nice outside and it should have a great sunset tonight. He began to imagine what the two boys could do, looking over the cliff at sunset park.... it was going to be amazing. Suddenly the door opened and Preston waltzed out, “Sorry to keep you waiting, ready to go? We might have enough time to get some sodas before heading to the park”. Max looked up at Prestons cute face, “Yeah let’s head out, I wanna make sure we can get those sodas”. </p><p>The two boys walked out to Prestons car, and got in. “I think the Wendy’s is on the way to Sunset Park, so we can get our sodas there if that’s alright with you” Preston said as he buckled himself into his seat. Max nodded and said “That’s fine with me, so let’s get out of here!”. With that Preston pulled out of the parking lot and got on the road. It took a few minutes to get to the main road they’d use but the boys enjoyed getting onto the higher speed limit road none the less. </p><p>Once they got on the highway Preston opened his window to let the air flow through his hair. Being that it was longer than most boys it fluttered in the wind quite nicely, and Preston caught Max looking. “I know you love when I do this Maxwell, you cannot resist my beautiful hair”. Max tried to think of an excuse but he just blushed and said “Yeah, it really looks good when it’s flowing like that”. Max put his window down too, but not to air his hair out (tho that was a side effect). Max liked to just put his hand out the window and feel the air flow through it, around it. It let him feel just how fast the car he was in was going. It made him feel alive. Everything about this, about tonight was just perfect, Max was with his amazing boyfriend, going to see the beautiful sunset, have dinner with his amazing (if overly loving) family, and hopefully get to wind down the day with some snuggles with Preston.</p><p>The pair kept driving down the highway with the wind blowing in their hair. The sun was starting to go down, but they still had around half-an-hour to make it to Sunset Park. “There’s our exit, Wendy’s should be coming up soon!” Preston said pointing at the exit sign that had all of the nearby refresheries listed. The boys car pulled off the highway and soon enough they were in the driveway line of the Wendy’s. “What do you want sweetie?” Preston asked in an equally sweet voice. “I think I’m gonna have a Dr. Pepper, in large if that’s alright”. Max looked towards his boyfriend who said “Anything for you my dear Maxwell, anything for you”.</p><p>Soon enough the car pulled into the ordering spot and the speaker crackled to life “Welcome to Wendy’s may I take your order”. Preston slightly leaned out the window and said “Two large Dr. Peppers please extra ice”. Preston drove forward after hearing his total and after coming to a stop leaned to Max and said “The extra ice is so well both need some snuggles to get warm later”. Max blushed and Preston raised his eyebrows. All that was missing was a rose in his mouth and Preston would  have every teenager wishing they were in Max’s position. Preston did not often go for subtlety and Max enjoyed his over the top antics at flirting, even if it were embarrassing at times. Either way Max was sure to have all of that ice later.</p><p>Once the car could pull up to the window Preston payed and took the drinks from the person at the window. After making sure both drinks were safely in their cup holders Preston pulled out of the Wendy’s and made his way back onto the highway. After a few minutes the boys spotted a sign “Sunset Park next exit”. Preston poked Max and said “We’re almost there, and just in time for the sun to set too!”. Max smiled at Prestons happiness, he always looked so cute when he was happy like that.</p><p>After the boys took their exit it was only a few minutes until they made it to the small parking lot of Sunset Park. The park was a small one, being right on the edge of a cliff that overlooked Lake Erie. In the park there was a swing set, a seesaw, and two benches overlooking the lake. In tune with its name the park faced right towards where the sun was soon to set, which was shimmering over the gentle waves of the lakes shore. </p><p>Max and Preston got out of the car and walked towards one of the benches overlooking the cliff. “Wow. It really is beautiful up here”, Preston said as he sat down on the bench. “It always is, just wait till the sunset kicks into full force”. Max sat on Preston’s lap, which made the tall boy blush. The sun slowly began to shrink, shimmering the sky and lake in a beautiful array of oranges and yellows. The colors cloaking the clouds strewn about the sky made the colors have more depth and darkness to them. The gentle lull of the water completed the experience in a way that made the sunset... perfect. </p><p>“I love this, it’s just so... beautiful. Almost as beautiful as you” Max said looking up at Preston, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. Preston blushed mightily “Why thank you Max, this was an amazing suggestion, I’ll remember this night forever”. Preston gave Max a little nuzzle “We need to do this again... in fact right here would be perfect for a wedding”. Preston was only being half serious as they were still young, but he was being truthful in how much he loved this place... this moment. </p><p>Max got up and approached the cliff in order to see more of the horizon, Preston soon followed. “I wish every day could be like today... I wish every night could be too”. Preston patted Max on the back “Now my dear Maxwell I agree, but sometimes we need more... mundane days in order to truly appreciate days like today. We need sadness in order to know why happiness is so amazing”. Max thought for a moment as he looked at the sunsets reflection in the water. Preston suddenly felt something at his chest, Max had began hugging him. It took Preston a few seconds to react, but he soon hugged his favorite lil boyfriend back. “I love you so much Preston, you are seriously the best boyfriend anyone could ask for”. Preston looked down at Max, kissed his head and responded “I’m only as good a boyfriend as you are, and that’s to say the best in the world”.</p><p>After a while longer appreciating the sunset (and Preston) Max looked at his phone, “Ah shit it’s 6:30, we should probably get going if we want to make it to dinner”. Max and Preston started to walk away from the cliff “I certainly wouldn’t want to make my future in-laws wait on what has already been such a fantastic day”. Both the boys got into the car and started their way back to the highway. </p><p>Max picked up his soda, shaked it a bit and slurped out the last few drops, “Well I guess that’s the last of it, I’ll make sure to stay a little bit cold for after dinner”. Preston blushed a tiny bit, “Aww, thank you Maxwell. I’ll make sure you get the best cuddles you’ve ever had”.</p><p>Soon enough the boys made it to Max’s house, right at 6:50, enough time to get comfortable before David served dinner. “Hey David I’m home” Max yelled out, knowing David was probably in the kitchen making dinner at that point. Preston and Max made their way into the living room where they ran into Gwen sitting on the end of one of the couches. “Hey ya little shit, you made it on time. And I see you brought your boyfriend tonight. Hey Preston how’ve you been?”. Max rolled his eyes and sat on the opposite end of the couch. Preston, still standing, waived at Gwen and answered “I am doing quite well Gwen, Maxwell here made the very romantic gesture of taking me to Sunset Park”. Gwen smiled at Preston while shifting her eyes to Max, “Well he does seem to have a romantic eye when it comes to you it seems... of only he saw it the same way with my novels”. </p><p>Gwen snickered as the three in the living room heard someone coming down the stairs. Coming around the corner where the stairs let out was Harrison in his usual getup. “Oh hey guys, is your date night going well so far?” Harrison asked sitting on the couch perpendicular from the one already in use. “These two love bugs seem to be having a good night so far” Gwen answered for the boys “Hopefully dinner will do you two good too cause all I know is David said we’re having burgers and a ‘special surprise”. </p><p>Almost on queue David yelled out “Dinners ready!! Everyone dress your burger how you want it!!!”. Everyone in the living room made their ways out into the kitchen where a row of perfectly cooked burgers were waiting with a small platter of potential toppings. While Harrison and Gwen got their burgers together David stopped the two boyfriends, “Hey you two, I hope you had an amazing day so far!! Go ahead and get you’re burgers all set up and you’ll have to catch me up once I get tonight’s special surprise out in the dining room!!”.</p><p>Max and Preston made their way to their burgers. Max put some bacon, pickles and Mayo on his, while Preston put on ketchup, mustard, pickles, and grilled onions. After they both put together their perfect burgers they both made their way out to the dining room. The dining room table had five seats out there that night, two sets on each long side and one on one of the short sides. Gwen was seated next to the short sides chair with Harrison sitting next to her. Max knew this was to make sure he and Preston would sit next to each other, though he made sure Preston was going to be the one who sat next to David (who always took the short side seat in order to “see everyone evenly” as he liked to put it).</p><p>After only a few minutes of waiting David came out with five bowls, “Now I know everyone is excited to see what these are but be careful! These are extremely hot!!”. Everyone looked at the small bowls that looked to have a coating of slightly burned cheese on top. “I thought since tonight was a special occasion I’d make something fancy!! So enjoy the French onion soup with a cheese top!!”. Everyone seemed excited to try not only the nice looking soup, but the burgers as well. David had become quite a cook in the last few years, and he could always make an enjoyable meal. </p><p>While everyone started to dig in David decided to ask “So how was your guy’s night!! I bet you had a super fun time!!”. Preston put down his burger and answered “Oh we had an absolutely wonderful time at Sunset Park, it was a beautiful sunset today, a truthfully magical experience!”. David had a wonder in his eyes as he imagined his sons date. Gwen asked the next question “Do you think the two of you will go to the Snowball dance? I know it’s always a hell of a party (and the two of you would look hella cute all dressed up)”. Gwen having said that last bit under her breath, though Preston could still hear it well and clear, and promptly blushed. </p><p>Max, knowing the questions from both of his parents would become increasingly embarrassing, signaled for Harrison to distract them. “Oh hey guys did I show you the new truck I’ve been working on?”. Everyone shook their heads no, “Oh oki, well let me just take this knife and this napkin and...” Harrison put the knife under the napkin and, after waiving his hands about, made the knife disappear “Ta-da!”. Gwen, David, and the other two boys all clapped in amazement (Max could never figure out how Harrison did that and just accepted his magic at this point), while Gwen and David congratulated Harrison on completing his new trick.</p><p>With Max’s parents distracted, Preston and Max finished their food. “Hey thanks for dinner, I think I’m gonna take Preston up to my room if that’s alright”. David took away his attention from Harrison for a second to say “Yep, that’s alright!! You two have fun up there!!” With Gwen snidely quipping “remember to use protection”. After Max sufficiently rolled his eyes enough he led Preston upstairs and into his room.</p><p>After shutting his door, Max sat down on his bed. Preston walked over to Max’s dresser to fix his hair in the mirror (like he needed to anyway), then walked to his desk and sat on top of it. “You really need to invite me over here more often Maxwell, not only is your room absolutely lovely, but David is an amazing cook, how does Quarter Master even still have that job at Camp Campbell?”. Max laughed and payed down on his bed, “I’m pretty sure he has tenure.... somehow. Anyway if you wanna come over more for ahead but I can only get Harrison to stave off the embarrassing questions so many times until we run out of knives”. Preston let out a small chuckle and stood up, “I think I can handle a few questions if it means I can spend more time with you and this wonderful family you built for yourself. And do you want to know something?” Preston smirked “I just noticed how unprepared you were for some tickles!!”. </p><p>Before Max could react to what was just said Preston lurched forward and tickled him all over, from his abdomen to his neck. Max cursed whoever gave him the genes that made him so ticklish. After a minute of Preston and Max laughing (and tickling) Preston stopped and laid down next to the now exhausted Max. “You know I love you so much Maxwell, cause you’re the best boyfriend I could ever have”. Max looked over at his boyfriend, who was too tall to fit on the bed while lying on the short side, with his feet still being able to touch the ground. “You know Preston.... I think I’m a little bit cold, wanna get all the way up here and cuddle some?”. Preston stared at Max with pure wonder and answered “Of course Max!! I thought you’d never ask”.</p><p>The two boyfriends then began to cuddle on Max’s bed, and did so for a long while. Not much was said between the two, but they could both feel what the other was thinking. They both wished this could go on all night, but sadly it was a school night and so Preston would have to go home eventually. They didn’t think about that though, they stayed in the moment, the moment that made them feel warm inside, one of those moments that made life.... worth living. </p><p>Max put his head on Preston’s chest... he wished he could always do that. It was so warm. He could feel every time his boyfriend breathed in and out. Hearing his heart beat was a wonderful sound for Max, and Preston just loved how close Max was to him. It’s the same feeling Max got as when they hugged. His height disadvantage came in handy sometimes it seems. </p><p>Eventually an alarm on Preston’s phone went off. “It seems as if it is 9pm my dear Maxwell, I sadly must be off”. Preston kissed Max on his forehead. “Wait..” Max said pulling at Prestons arm as he got up, “I need to give you this”. With that Max kissed Preston on the lips, something that made both boys look as red as tomatoes, and they both loved it. </p><p>Preston said the rest of his goodbyes to Max (and the rest of the family on his way out as well) and headed out to his car. Once out there he looked up to see Max looking down at him from his rooms window, waiving his boyfriend goodbye for the night. Preston, touched, waived back and began to drive away, already thinking of ways to have another night as special as this one again.</p><p>After Max waived Preston goodbye he flopped back on his bed. All he could think of was how amazing the night had been, how amazing his boyfriend was, and despite how embarrassing they could be, how amazing his family was for supporting Max in his relationship with the person he was truly in love with. As Max sat in his bed staring at the ceiling, thinking of the night he just had and the nights he and Preston were sure to have in the future all he could say was “That was for sure one Fucking perfect night”.</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Something funny happened on the way to the Festival</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Greenwood family goes on a little (long) road trip, though it’s just beginning that doesn’t mean Max and Harrison can’t have a blast!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Alright guys if that’s everything then get on into the car, and let’s have one darn great road trip!”. David was being as chipper as he ever was, especially so since he was finally able to get his entire new family to agree to go on a road trip with him. Max and Harrison picked up the bags they packed for things they wanted to use in the car (David had told them it would take a few hours) and got into the back seat. At the same time Gwen got into the passenger seat with two cups of coffee, handing one back to Max after he got his seatbelt on.</p><p>“I swear to god David, we did not need to get up this early to drive, it’s not like we can do much down there today anyways” Gwen said as she took a sip of her coffee, burning her tongue just a teensy bit. “Now Gwen it’s called a road trip for a reason” David said with a smile getting into and starting the car, “And there were a few surprises I wanted to show you all on the way! By the end of the day you’ll know it was worth it to get going at 5am!”. All of the non-David’s in the car groaned lightly, while they appreciated David’s enthusiasm for the trip, they also wished they had gotten more sleep.</p><p>Max put his coffee cup in the cup holder and turned to Harrison asking, “You got any magic that can make me fall asleep”. Harrison took off his lil top hat and put it beside him in the middle seat, “Well, yes but I’m pretty sure it causes brain damage”. Max sarcastically quipped “Eh, I’ll take it” prompting Harrison to chuckle a small bit. </p><p>David finally finished setting up his GPS and pulled out of the driveway to officially start their trip. “So what does everyone want to listen to on the radio, music or the farmers almanac?”. Max took his coffee out of the cup holder and had a sip, then said “I will listen to anything but another one of those almanac tapes, I swear I still hear those in my nightmares”. David turned on the radio, cheerfully saying “I’ll take that as the radio then! I hope you all like the tunes!!”. </p><p>As the radio played some music Harrison decided to start a conversation with Max. “So how’s it been with your boyfriend? You never did talk much about how it went last week” Harrison asked inquisitively. “I’ll tell you more about that later if you want, David said we’re going to share a room. I don’t want the two of them to ask a ton of questions while I’m trapped in here” Max whispered to Harrison. “Anyway how have things been with you and Neil, I know you guys aren’t only studying when he comes over” Max said poking fun at Harrison, as the magic boy blushed slightly. “Things have been good I guess, and I don’t know why you keep insinuating things, he’s my friend and all we’ve been doing is playing video games while I showed him some of my magic” Harrison said as he pouted.</p><p>Max raised his eyebrows in surprise “Huh, I knew about the games but I’m surprised Mr. Science wanted to see magic tricks that probably still keep him up at night trying to figure out. And by the way, please don’t get any ideas about experimenting on me again. Sometimes I can still taste the fabric” with that last part max stuck his tongue out in disgust. “Don’t worry, I won’t” Harrison said quickly whispering “and besides even if I did now you wouldn’t notice”. Harrison added a big smile to finish the joke, and Max in response rolled his eyes.</p><p>A bit of time passed and a conversation started at the front of the car. “David I’m getting hungry, when can we stop for breakfast?” Gwen said rubbing her growling stomach which had nothing but coffee in it. “It’s only about 20 minutes until we can get THE best takeout breakfast sandwiches this side of the country!” David said with enough enthusiasm to make Gwen think the wait was almost worth it (almost). </p><p>After suffering starvation for close to half an hour Gwen perked up when she heard David exclaim “Here it is JT’s!! You’re all in for a treat here today!”. After parking Gwen got out of the car and waited for the boys to follow. “Alright guys this is all we’re gonna get until lunch so make sure you order enough to last you until then” Gwen said as she walked with her family to the doors of the eating establishment. The two teenagers (and David) nodded their heads in acknowledgement and walked into the small sandwich shop. </p><p>The inside of JT’s smelled like fresh baked bread, but not any type of bread, bagels. Almost everything in the shop centered around bagels. The display case had dozens of bagels with flavors ranging from blueberry to garlic to bacon jalapeño. Beside that lay a box labeled “day old bagels $1 per bag” with a number of bags within it. A large board on the wall listed all the types of bagels, cream cheeses, and breakfast sandwiches. The rest of the walls were covered with pictures of the nearby small town and surrounding farmland, and art for sale by local artists. Behind the counter sat a large contraption that looked to be some sort of toaster oven, though large with a conveyor belt. At the front of the counter stood a young girl, looking to be around 18, who smiled as she heard the front door open, and the family of four enter.</p><p>The smell of fresh bagels hit Gwen like... well like a sack of bagels. It only made her more hungry. The whole family looked at their options as the girl at the counter asked “Hi! How can I help you?”. David, having come here before, was the first to order “Hi! Thank you I’ll have a lox sandwich on an everything bagel please! Oh and also an extra poppy seed for the road!”. Max was the next to order, “I’ll have an egg and cheese and a pastrami, both on garlic please”. After he stepped aside Gwen made her order, “Can I please have a lox on garlic, a egg and cheese on everything, and a BLT on cheese”. With that all that was left to order was Harrison, “Um, I’ll have a lox on garlic, and a pastrami on rye please”. </p><p>After paying for the (rather large) order everyone stepped aside and watched their feast of a breakfast be made. The girl at the counter grabbed each of the bagels they had requested and put them on the small conveyor belt one at a time, with around 10 seconds in between each. The machine cut the bagels when they got to the end of the conveyor belt, after which they fell into another one which dragged them through a small toaster oven. Once they finished through the machine they were perfectly toasted and ready to be made into sandwiches. </p><p>The girl began to pick up bagels and made them one by one, to the specifications that the family had asked of her. Within 10 minutes all of the sandwiches we’re finished and ready to be picked up. “Thank you!!” David said beginning to pick up the bags of sandwiches, “Okay everyone, are we all good to leave?” David asked looking at his family. “I think we’re good David, let’s just get on the road and eat cause I’m starving” Gwen responded.</p><p>With that everyone waived to the nice girl that made their food, and walked out of the small store. After gettin in the car and settling in some David drove off. “God I am sooo ready to have these sandwiches” Gwen grunted as she got the egg and cheese out and took a large bite “Fuck this is really good.... how the hell was that wait worth it”. David smiled and pulled out his lox sandwich, had a bite and responded “I told you it was good!! Just wait till we get to where I’m planning on stopping for dinner!”. Gwen rolled her eyes as she kept eating her first sandwich “Fine, I’ll trust you on how good it’ll be, now let me get back to my sandwiches”.</p><p>In the back the boys were starting to eat theirs as well. Max picked up his egg and cheese and turned to Harrison saying “I think I’m gonna start with this while the egg is still runny, how about you?”. Harrison grabbed around his bag and pulled one of his sandwiches out, “I guess I’ll try this pastrami, I’ve always liked it so I’ll see how good this one is”. Both boys smiled and took bites out of their sandwiches, Max’s being a bit smaller as he had a fairly small mouth. “Mmmm! This is good, what devil magic makes you find good food so often David, and how the hell can you never get it to camp”, Max yelled up to the front of the car prompting Harrison to quip, “Hey.... devil magic is my thing”. </p><p>“Now now Max, you can’t discount Quartermasters cooking too much, sure it isn’t always... edible but he tries his hardest!” David said with enthusiasm, though he did wish he could be the camp cook sometimes. “Whatever you say.... Harrison have you ever tried to make his food disappear?”. Harrison looked at Max with slightly worried eyes and said “Uhm... no but seeing some of the things he’s done and shown me makes me think it wouldn’t be the wisest use of magic”. Max thought to himself that, yeah he really should have seen that coming seeing how Quartermaster has taken Harrison on some... questionable quests. “Eh, it was worth a shot, let’s just try and enjoy the food like this while we still have a chance” Max said focusing on his sandwich again. “I love that positivity Max!” David remarked.</p><p>After a few minutes of eating Max turned back to Harrison, “Hey how was the pastrami? I’m still thinking about whether I should have mine now or later.” Harrison took a sip from his bottle of water and answered “It was pretty good, I’d definitely suggest having yours while it’s still warm”. Max looked a the bag which held his sandwich and grabbed it, taking his pastrami on garlic and holding it in his hands. “Did you two up there finish yours?” Max asked still trying to gauge if he should have a second or not. “I finished mine when you all were yapping about Quartermaster and what is questionably considered food, and David only got one so he’s been done almost since we left” Gwen said, she then crumpled up her sandwich bag and tossed it in the back seat, where it squarely hit Max in the face.</p><p>“Ha ha, very funny Gwen, I guess I’ll have mine now then so I don’t fall behind”, Max said as he rolled his eyes at Gwen who snorted when she saw the bag hit its mark. Max took a bite into his sandwich and decided to check his phone, he had one notification.</p><p>Triple threat &gt;:3 : How’s the trip going?</p><p>Max saw the message from Preston and quickly typed out his answer.</p><p>My lil grump &lt;3 : As well as it can I guess, I still hate having to get up at 5 tho... David got us some good breakfast at least.</p><p>Triple threat &gt;:3 : Oof, 5 hours on the road already? I gotta say I’m surprised you agreed to go so early Maxwell... did you at least get some coffee?</p><p>My lil grump &lt;3 : Yeah, Gwen made some before we left so I haven’t been without my (non-you) savior</p><p>Triple threat &gt;:3 : Thats good at least, I don’t know how you could survive without that caffeine addiction of yours ;)</p><p>Triple threat &gt;:3 : Give me updates later on, I wanna make sure my best boi is having himself a good time this weekend!</p><p>My lil grump &lt;3 : I’ll be sure to do that, not much to do except stare at farmland right now so I’ll take any distraction I can get, ttyl.</p><p>Max set his phone down, it was nice to hear from Preston. Max wished he could be here as well, but understood that David wanted a family vacation every once in a while (and anyways Preston would be family sooner or later). </p><p>Being up for a few hours, Max felt... tired. He decided that after he finished his sandwich, he would close his eyes.... just for a few minutes.</p><p>....................</p><p> </p><p>Max looked up at the sky. It was a beautiful day. He always loved the spring. It was nice to lay in the grass, it was... calming. Especially since Preston was right there beside him. “You seeing any good clouds darling?” Preston asked pointing towards the sky. “Nah not really, I just like looking at them all... they all look so fluffy”. Max thought the question was kinda dumb... and he loved it. </p><p>“Have you thought about Highschool at all?” Max asked. He was worried that the bigger school would make him and Preston grow apart. “I try to focus on the now... but yes. It’s exciting what’s going to happen in a few months”, Preston turned his head towards Max, “I hope we get to go to all those dances they always show, it would be marvelous to take you to one”. Max blushed, and he tried to hide it from Preston, “Yeah that seems cool, it’s gonna be weird having different schedules tho, not to mention having David always be around the corner”.</p><p>Max wanted this to last forever, he didn’t want things to change. He knew they would. “I think I might try out for the baseball team, and maybe the football team as well” Preston said breaking the short silence that had occurred, “Ever since I was in sports camp I’ve had some enjoyment of them”. Max was sort of puzzled, Preston had been a bit more athletic since then but Max never thought that he would go as far as trying out for a sports team. “Whatever you want to do, as long as you enjoy it I guess........ and you still do some of those plays”. Max’s first thought is he hoped that Preston wouldn’t turn into one of those jerk jocks that were all over tv, or the woodscouts camp.</p><p>“It’s only a thought so far, and who knows if I would be able to make either, I just think it might be enjoyable to try”, Preston smiled at Max who locked eyes with him and they both blushed and went back to looking at the sky. “I hope every day can stay like this” Max said. He was still worried about his future with Preston, but now wasn’t the time to think about that... it was too nice for that.</p><p>............................</p><p>“Max...... MAX!”, Max woke up to Harrison shaking him. “We’re at a rest stop, it’s the only bathroom stop until we get lunch so David told me to wake you up, let’s go”. Max rubbed his eyes... how long was he out? He yawned out “Alright I’m coming, I better be able to get something from the vending machine before we leave tho”.</p><p>The two brothers exited the car, which locked behind them, and they approached the small rest stop. While many rest stops on the highway had a food court of sorts and some type of convenience store, all this one had were two bathrooms and a small vending machine for sodas.</p><p>Since Max was still waking up (for the second time today) he lagged a bit behind Harrison, who zoomed his way into the men’s bathroom. By the time Max made his way in Harrison was already washing his hands. “Is David still in here?” Max asked as he walked to go do his deed. “I didn’t see him, but I also wasn’t really looking. I’ll be outside”, Harrison said as he went out the door and then out the building to stand in the cool fall air. </p><p>Max quickly finished up, washed his hands, and exited through the same door. Unlike Harrison however, he still stayed in  the building. Max walked up to the vending machine that sat opposite of the bathrooms and looked to see what was inside. It only had five options: Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Mug, and Mt. Dew. Max checked his pockets to see if he had any money, but they were empty... his wallet must have still been in the car... which was now locked. Max was about to just say tough shit and be disappointed when he felt a tap on his shoulder.</p><p>“Hey ya little shit” Gwen said half jokingly, “You need some money?”. Max took a second and then nodded “If you have some then sure, I always like some Dr. Pepper”. Max had a good relationship with Gwen, especially seeing how they used to treat each other when he was a kid, but he still wasn’t the most comfortable asking things from her, or anyone really. He loved his family but the only person he truly felt open with was Preston.</p><p>Max was snapped out of his inner thoughts when Gwen handed him a five. “Here, and you can keep the change for later too, not like I’ll desperately need it. And sorry about rushing out without waking you up, David bolted out of the car as soon as he parked and I ran in to make sure he didn’t run into the wrong bathroom by mistake....... again”. Max cracked a little smile “Yeah that sounds like him, I bet he held it so long to make sure we came to this stop on his perfect vacation plan”. Gwen snorted “Yep, anyway, is Harrison around?”. Max looked towards the exit and pointed, “I think I saw him standing outside, so you might want to check there”. Gwen began to walk towards the exit, saying “Alright, enjoy picking out your soda, hopefully David will get out soon so we can get back on the road”. </p><p>Max put the bill in the vending machine, and pressed the button that said Dr. Pepper. The machine made a few rumbling sounds and after a few second a 20oz bottle popped out, along with a variety of quarters in the change box. “Really? 3.25 and all I get back is quarters... I guess I’m lucky it didn’t charge me more”. He grabbed his change and put it in his hoodies pocket, and then followed that up by grabbing his soda. He opened the bottle to take that first, acidic sip. “Ahhh” Max let out as he put the cap back on and put it too into his pocket. </p><p>“I see you’re enjoying soda Max, I’m glad to see you woke up well enough!”. Max spun around to see David walking up to him, with a huge smile on his face as always. “Sorry I took so long, drinking 15 water bottles will do that, but we all need our hydration, even when you’re only driving!!!”. Max walked towards David, “Yeah, I’m glad to get some more caffeine after that coffee ran out before breakfast, how long do you think it’ll be until lunch?”. David took a look at his watch and responded “Well, it should be another 45 minutes to an hour depending on traffic, but I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait!!”.</p><p>Max looked up at his dad “I’m sure it will be, you somehow always have great restaurants in mind”. David smiled even more at the sound of Max’s praise. “Thank you Max!!!! How have you been liking the trip so far? I know we haven’t gotten into the exciting things much but I always love driving the countryside!”. Max let a small smile slip to his face “despite how early you made us get up I do have to say it’s been decent so far, the farmland is pretty to look at and those bagels were the bomb... I just hope that festival is worth all the driving”. David cupped his hands together and responded “I’m glad that I’ve been able to make this enjoyable for you so far! And believe me it will be more worth it the farther along we go!! Anyways ready to head out?”. Max put his hands in his pocket, “Yeah, the sooner we get going the better, Gwen and Harrison are waiting outside I think”. With that the father son duo walked outside.</p><p>..................</p><p>Gwen walked out the doors. She really needed some air, being stuffed in that car all day was torture. That was one of the good things about camp for her, she could breathe. That wasn’t the case in an office job. Harrison was standing to the side of the door, in the little patch of grass surrounded by the concrete that made up the parking lot. He looked to be enjoying being able to stretch his legs for just a bit. </p><p>Gwen made her way over to Harrison “Hey kid, how’s the trip been treating you so far?”. Harrison turned his body so he faced Gwen more naturally, “Its been good so far, the time in the car has been good for practicing my slight of hand tricks, look” Harrison said as he made his top hat disappear, only to have it return after clapping his hands, “Ta-da! I’m also pretty excited for this whole festival, I just hope we don’t all get too carsick before we make it”. </p><p>Gwen applauded Harrison’s magic trick “You really do get better at those every time Harrison, and yeah believe me I hope so too, David never understands that we don’t all have his unwavering enthusiasm for everything, let alone this long ass car trip”. Harrison gave a little smile, “Well at least he’s not making us listen to the farmers almanac, we’d be right into the 1980s by now”. Gwen and Harrison snickered at the thought of listening to all those boring tapes David loved.</p><p>Suddenly the pair heard the door beside them open. “Well I’m glad to see you two are having fun!! Let’s get back on the road so we can get to lunch before the rush!” David said optimistically as he and Max exited the small building. “Alright alright, but this place better be worth it cause I’m getting hungry again” said Gwen with a bit of sass. “You bet! I used to go every year!!” David responded still in his cheery voice. With that said, everyone made their way back to the car and got in, ready to get moving on the road. Max put his soda bottle in the cup holder beside him, and readied himself for another long, though less long than before, time on the road ahead.</p><p>......................</p><p>After a long bit of driving David finally pulled off of the highway, and made his way to a small road, coming to a stop in a small parking lot that surrounded an even smaller building. “Here we are, White Turkey, the best rootbeer stand you will ever find!” David said in amazement as he gestured towards the small stand. “Well... it looks old fashioned, I’ll give it that” Max said skeptically as he got out of the car, something that the rest of the non-David trio felt in differing amounts. After making sure the car was locked, the family approached the small stand.</p><p>The White Turkey Drive-In was a quaint little place. It wasn’t that big, being a small rectangular building, only a small square of which was completely enclosed. The vast majority of it was an outside lunch counter. There were about 18-20 seats around the outside of the rectangle, which was broken on both of the short sides, one by the inside building where the food was cooked, and on the other where there was a cash register and a large rootbeer barrel. On the large counter that the seats sat around were small jukeboxes, and topping platters that held pickles, onions, and relish. On the inside stood a few waitresses, who stood ready to help any customers that sat down. Along with that was a small soft serve ice cream machine, cups and utensils, and a variety of signs advertising the menu. “Large Marge (Turkey sandwich with cheese) $4”, “Hotdog $3”, “Cheeseburger $4”, “Big Ed (Double cheeseburger)”, “Super Ed (Double cheeseburger with an onion ring and bacon) $5.50”, “Chubby Chucker (Triple cheeseburger with bacon and fries piled high) $6.50”, “Fries $2”, “Black cow (milkshake with rootbeer instead of milk) $3”. All of this stood inside the large white and red striped awning, on top of which was a large red and white sign “WHITE TURKEY DRIVE-IN, RICHARDSON ROOTBEER, RICH IN FLAVOR”. On each side of the sign was the little silhouette of a man serving a glass of rootbeer.</p><p>The small family took four of the stools at the counter, all sitting right in a row. One of the waitresses walked around the middle island on the inside of the counter, slid a small laminated card with her name on it and asked “Hello, I’ll be your server today, my name is Michelle, how can I help you?”. David said with a smile “I’m gonna let them look at the menu for a minute cause it’s their first time!! Thank you though!”. The waitress gave off a small smile in return “Alright, I’ll be right over here if you need me”. </p><p>Everyone looked at the menu pasted on the wall, “If any of you want some suggestions, I have my favorites here!” David said with excitement. Max looked specifically at the two ‘Ed’ burger specials, while Harrison and Gwen were eying the milkshakes. After a bit of internal deliberation (and external asking what David liked, that being the Super Ed and black cow combo) all four were ready to order. “I’ll have a Super Ed, Black cow, Richardson’s rootbeer, and an order of fries please!!” David said, excited to see how everyone liked this old fashioned restaurant. “I think I’m gonna have... a Chubby Chucker, and a fries........ and a peanut butter milkshake” Gwen stated as she strained to make sure she was ordering the right foods from the menu. “I’ll have a fries, Black Cow, and a Big Ed please” said Harrison, who still wasn’t that hungry from breakfast. Last up was Max who decided that “I’ll order a Black Cow, fries, Super Ed, and a hotdog please”.</p><p>The waitress took down the order, and everyone thanked her as she went back to the kitchen to put the order in. “I hope you all are gonna like the food here!!! Does anyone mind if I play some tunes on the jukebox?” David said as he patted the mini jukebox in front of him. Reaching into his pocket David realized something, “Ah shoot and darn, I don’t have any quarters” he said in disappointment. Max placed his hand in his pocket, and got out four quarters “Here’s a few, just pick some good ones alright?”. David beamed “Thanks Max!! I always love these things!”. David placed the four quarters in the machine and picked out four oldies to play on the stereo. Soon enough the speakers began crackling out the first song he punched in.</p><p>Soon after the first song ended, the waiters brand out everyone’s drinks and milkshakes. Everyone took a sip of their milkshakes “Wow! This is really good, amazing suggestion David!” Harrison said in amazement as he sucked down his Black Cow. Max nodded in agreement and Gwen seemed to also thoroughly enjoy her milkshake. “I’m glad you all enjoy them so much!!” David replied as he himself enjoyed his shake. As they all enjoyed their shakes the waitress started to bring out their lunches. After placing everyone’s food out she said “If you need anything else, just ask, enjoy!”. </p><p>With that everyone dug into their food.  Gwen took a large bite out of her burger; and showed visible enjoyment, something she didn’t often do. Harrison, despite not being that hungry, loved his burger as well, making sure to put extra ketchup on it. David also enjoyed his food, though that was to be expected as he had been here many times before, he was just enjoying the fact that everyone else seemed to be loving it just as much as him.... if not more! Max was also not spared from the enjoyment bug, as he took bite after bite between his burger and hotdog, mixing in a few sips of milkshake in between.</p><p>In record time the family cleaned their plates, something amazing seeing as how they all had a rather large breakfast as well. No matter they all thanked the waitress, paid, and left a hefty tip. </p><p>Walking towards the car Max spoke up “.... ok I have to admit that was also worth the trip, but I’m definitely going to need more sleep cause I did not get enough to be going through this entire trip”. David put on a big smile at Max’s approval of yet another one of his favorite eateries. Harrison quipped “I’m surprised, you seemed to be asleep quite a long time earlier”. Max cracked back, “Yeah, your magic shows can put me to sleep real well”. Both boys jokingly stuck their tongues out at each other and then gave a little laugh.</p><p>“It’s my turn to drive, toss me the keys” Gwen said, as David tossed her his keys. Everyone got in, and settled down in their seats, ready for another long trek along the road. Gwen pulled out of the parking lot and made her way to the highway. David put the radio back on, setting some gentle music on. Max and Harrison began to doze off, being tired from how full they were, the light hum of the road, and the steady rhythm of the radio. Max began to dream of Preston, and Harrison of his friends... and Neil. David noticed the boys droop into sleep, but didn’t bother them, he knew they had a long day ahead of them, one filled with more fun.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. The Apple Butter Festival</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The road trip continues, with some fun for the teens and the adults!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Harrison woke up. He rubbed his eyes. The world felt like thick, thick jelly. Somehow he felt more tired then before he fell asleep. That was a weird dream he was having about Neil.... best not to look too far into it he thought. He looked over, it seemed like Max was still sound asleep. He looked so adorable all bunched up in his seat. Harrison pulled out his phone to take a picture, Max would kill him later, buuuut Preston would appreciate it. The only thing that was missing was Max holding Mr. Honeynuts, but no matter.</p>
<p>Harrison let out a little yawn, alerting Gwen to his awakened status. “Hey Harrison, how was the nap?” She asked quietly. “It was good, I feel more tired now tho.... probably from eating so much” he said in a hushed tone back. “That’s good, it’s just you and me right now cause David fell asleep a while back, so I’d suggest just playing on your phone for now to keep the energy and grump demons asleep” Gwen said in a joking, but quiet tone. Harrison nodded in agreement. </p>
<p>He looked at his phone... he hadn’t gotten any texts while he was asleep but he also never kept his notifications on for the group chat since Preston and Neil got into an argument about the scientific accuracy of one of Preston’s plays... that took over 6 hours. Harrison decided to see if there was anything interesting going on in it now. There kinda was, Nikki found a cool looking frog hiking and Dolph decided to paint it. Dolphs painting looked great, as always. Harrison thought to himself if he ever needed a present he could probably get a commission from Dolph, who’d probably appreciate it too. </p>
<p>As Harrison scrolled through his texts, he remembered the picture he had just taken.... it was time to show Preston that</p>
<p>Magic Boi: Hey Preston check this out</p>
<p>Theater Boi: What?</p>
<p>Magic Boi: [Image]</p>
<p>Magic Boi: I hope you like it :)</p>
<p>Theater Boi: OH MY</p>
<p>Theater Boi: OH MY GOD</p>
<p>Theater Boi: THAT IS SO ADORABLE, HOW DID YOU TAKE THAT?</p>
<p>Magic Boi: I snapped the pic when I got up first &gt;:)</p>
<p>Magic Boi: He prolly won’t let me wake up before him for a while lol</p>
<p>Theater Boi: Aw, I hope you can take another one sometime, my bf is so adorable when he’s sleeping... and everytime :P</p>
<p>Magic Boi: lol sure, just don’t tell him I took that until I’m not locked one seat away from him, I’m not dying that way</p>
<p>Theater Boi: You have my word Harrison, I hope that trip does the both of you well!</p>
<p>Magic Boi: Thanks!!</p>
<p>Harrison set down his phone and looked out the window. It was mostly farmland at this point. Fields and fields of crops, mostly being corn. Every once in a while they’d pass some animals too, sheep horses cows and the like. Harrison liked it. It made him want to go to a petting zoo sometime soon. Maybe there’d be something like that at the festival?</p>
<p>As he looked out the window at the horizon rolling by, Harrison noticed a small lake with ducks floating on top. He picked his phone back up and took a picture, Camp Campbell always made him love lakes. After passing by the lake Harrison decided to scroll through social media. He mostly followed magicians, saving the tricks he wanted to try out someday. It was his own little way to research when he wasn’t practicing at camp.</p>
<p>A little while into Harrison’s magical social media adventures he heard some movement next to him. Max had begun to stir. Harrison leaned in near his ear and whispered “beep beep beep beep”. Almost immediately he got a hand to the face “Imma hit snuz alrut?”, Max slurred out as he hadn’t even opened his eyes yet (or realized he was awake for that matter). The combination of having the small hand forced into his face and Max’s interesting way with words made Harrison have to cover his mouth to stifle his impending laughter. </p>
<p>After about 30 seconds Max had woken up enough to realize what had just happened (though still not enough to be completely in reality). “This is why I always need coffee” Max grumbled out as he tried to cover his eyes from the light with his arm. “Yeah, but that won’t help you when you aren’t awake” Harrison said in response. Max looked at him in complete seriousness “Who said anything about sleeping”. Max then let out a little chuckle. </p>
<p>“Hey Max, glad to see you awake. David’s still asleep so you two just try to keep it a lil quite back there if you can” Gwen said in a whisper. “Can do” Max said quietly, right before he poked Harrison in retaliation for pretending to be an alarm clock. “Ow, hey you know it was funny” Harrison said as he pouted. “Yeah I know, that doesn’t mean you didn’t deserve a poke” Max said with a sly smile. Harrison rolled his eyes and stuck out his tongue at Max, who responded by sticking his own tongue out. </p>
<p>As the car drove on Max and Harrison played on their phones occasionally chatting, both between themselves and the group chat with the whole camp group. After a while longer David finally woke up, “Wow I was out of it Gwen, let’s see how far we are from dinner”. David said as he checked his phones map. “Oh great! We’re only around half an hour away now, I woke up just in time!” David was very excited, as he always seemed to be. “Great, just be sure to tell me how to get there, cause your the only one that even knows where we’re going” Gwen said tiredly. “No problem! I’ll let you know when we get off the highway!” David responded back chipperly. </p>
<p>Half an hour later the car pulled into a small town. The type of town that only has one main road going through the entire place. Along that road was a small restaurant. “Ok stop here!” Said David even more excitedly than usual, “This is where we’re going to have dinner! Weavers!”. Max sighed, “Well, it looks on par with the last two places, let’s hope you hit another home run”. David unbuckled his seatbelt as the car pulled into a parking spot on the street, “Oh I’m sure you’ll all love it!! C’mon let’s get in there!”. </p>
<p>The small family all got out of the car and followed David into the small eating establishment. Once inside there was a small waiting area with a hostess stand, an area only big enough for the four of them. As they waited for someone to help them the non-David members of the family took time to look around. While it looked small on the outside, the restaurant was even smaller on the inside, with only around eight tables scattered throughout the dining area. Behind the hostess’s stand were two things, a cash register and a display case filled with pies. </p>
<p>After only about a minute a girl came out of the back and helped the family to a booth, giving each of them menu’s and taking their drink orders. After she left the discussion of what exactly to order came up. “I think I might try that rueben” said Harrison pointing to the picture on the menu. “That’s always a good choice! I myself am probably going to get the fish sandwich” David said, happy that Harrison already seemed to choose something he usually liked. “I don’t know, I might just go with the chicken salad... I already had a lot today, and I wanna make sure I can have all those food trucks you were talking about” Gwen said peering through the salads ingredient list. “You may choose the healthy option Gwen but I’m gonna go with a cheeseburger, cause I know I’m still gonna be able to eat a ton tomorrow” Max said sarcastically at her healthier choice. “It’s not like I’m getting this for the health benefits, it’s just the lightest thing on the menu you dork” Gwen said patting Max on the head to annoy him. Max responded by sticking out his tongue at her, prompting a small laugh from Harrison.</p>
<p>While the family was still looking at their menu options the waitress came back with their drinks and took their orders down, leaving with a thank you from each family member. “So... where are we staying tonight again?” Max asked leaning back into the booth. “Oh! We’re gonna be staying at an old family friend of mines farmhouse, it’s only about twenty minutes from the festival!” David said excited to share where they were going to stay on this occasion. “They have electricity right? Please for the love of god say they have electricity” Gwen said somewhat desperately. “Of course! It’s just a farm house, it’s not like it’s still in the 1850s” David answered smoothly, knowing everyone needed some sort of break after such a long ride.</p>
<p>After a little while longer of small talk and goofing around the waitress came back with everyone’s food. Everyone thanked her and began to dig in. Max took a bite into his burger and he realized something, this was a decent burger. That’s just it though it’s only decent, average, better than fast food, but that’s not what he was expecting after how they’d ate earlier in the day. Max looked up at the others around him, and though David was happily munching his way through his fish sandwich, he could see that Gwen and Harrison were thinking the same thing. This was a fine place to eat, just not as good as David had been making it out to be. No one was going to say that to him of course, he had some great suggestions through the day and they didn’t want to hurt his feelings (especially since it was still good food, just nothing to write home about). </p>
<p>This steady uneasiness between the non-David family members persisted through until everyone had finished. “Now that was good!” David said putting down his napkin “But now comes the best part!”. He got up, walked over to the cash register and exchanged a few words. The person behind the register walked over to the display case and pulled out a pie, walking into the back with it. David went back to the table and said “it’ll be just a few minutes so they can cut it up for us, I hope you all like chocolate cream pie!!!”. He seemed more excited than ever. Max thought to himself, could the pie really be the reason to love this place to the point that David did?</p>
<p>“Yeah I could go for some pie!” Harrison said excitedly, with Gwen and Max nodding in agreement. After another couple minutes the pie tin was brought out, cut into fourths with four plates stacked next to it. “Alright everyone grab a slice and let me know what you think!” David said grabbing a slice for himself. Max looked at the pie and took the slice closest to him... it was enormous. The pie filling itself was around the normal height, but on top of that was a stiff white substance that rose above it for several inches. Max took his fork and forced it down the entire stack from the top of the white all the way down to the crust. His fork made its way down effortlessly, which should have been expected seeing as it was a chocolate cream pie. </p>
<p>Max took his forkful of pie and brought it up to his mouth, putting it inside to try this first bite. It was really fricking good. At least that’s what Max thought (In much more explicit words). The white cream was actually meringue, which almost tasted better than the chocolate in the pie... almost. As Max was enjoying his slice, everyone else was having a similar experience, loving the pie at this seemingly average dinner place. “So what do you all think?” David asked taking a break from his (admittedly too large) serving of pie. Gwen responded first “this is really good, better than any of the bakery’s near us anyway” she said in an upbeat manner. “I’d definitely say it’s a winner David” Max said quickly as he shoveled in another forkful into his mouth. “I like it a lot! Can we get one to bring home with us?” Harrison asked innocently. </p>
<p>David listened to all their feedback as he took another bite of his pie. “We might be able to Harrison, but we’d have to stop in after the festival so it stays fresh” David answered, giving hope to the boy (and really the whole family). After that round of talk it was mostly quiet at the booth, while everyone worked on finishing their pie. While they really enjoyed it David had made the mistake of feeding them too much today (and not warning them to save room for desert before hand). Despite this they all happily finished their portions and were ready to head out.</p>
<p>After paying, the family returned to the car, this time with David in the drivers seat. “I’m gonna take us the rest of the way cause I’m the only one that’s been here before, it should only be about 20 more minutes until we reach the farm” David said as he pulled out of their parking spot. “We’ll be there in no time, and I’m sure all of you are wanting to get a nice rest before the festival!” David said excited about the next day. Max looked out the window, it was quite dark now... of course they had been driving all day so it was expected to be late at this point, he definitely was looking forward to a bed though.</p>
<p>Twenty minutes of driving later and the car pulled onto an old dirt road, “The farm house should just be down this road here” said David getting everyone’s attention. Max and Harrison in particular were wanting to be able to stretch out their legs in bed, they really needed a good nights sleep before having more chaos tomorrow.  The car pulled down the old dirt road and slowly a farm house came into view at the end of it. It looked old, but in the sense that it was weathered. The light was on outside the front porch, which on closer inspection didn’t actually exist. “Uncle Drew left the light on for us, he said they were replacing some rotten planks in the front porch so we should pull around back to get in through the back porch” David said seeing the confusion on everyone’s faces about the flourless porch.</p>
<p>After the car pulled around back everyone got out, and grabbed their essentials from the trunk of the car. “Ok everyone, follow me and I can show you around the house!” David said hauling a small backpack along with two pillows. Everyone followed him up the back porch, carrying their own bags and pillows. David opened the back door and walked in. Immediately inside the door was a small kitchen, with two rooms branching off from it, one going straight and the other going to the right. David walked straight going into a decently large foyer, with a large wooden staircase going up to a second floor. In front of those stairs was a door, that Max assumed was the one on the non-existent front porch. Walking towards the stairs and up, following David, Max noticed that there were two more rooms off of this foyer. On the left looked to be a small library, and on the right a living room, though Max could only see a chair and couch from his viewpoint walking by. </p>
<p>After getting up the stairs David brought his attention to his sons, “alright Max, Harrison, this is going to be your room!” David said as he opened the door to their room. Max was the first one in. It was a pretty big room, having two beds (thank god) that sat next to each other. On the other side of the room was a desk and some bookshelves. “You two get settled in while Gwen and I go ahead to put room, we’ll just be over here if you need us!” David said as he pointed to a room down the hall. </p>
<p>After their parents walked off Harrison and Max placed their pillows on their respective beds. “Well, it definitely could have been worse” Max said as he got his phone charger out of his bag. Harrison slipped off his shoes and jumped onto his bed “I’d say this is definitely pretty good, the bed is pretty soft too, try it out” he said excitedly, bouncing up and down on his bed like a little kid. Max plugged in his charger and put his bag on the ground “Alright, alright I’ll try it out” Max said as he slipped off his shoes and hopped into the bed. Harrison was right, it was a pretty good bed, it wasn’t his home bed, but Max had definitely slept in worse many many times. “You excited for tomorrow Max?” Harrison asked as he got into his covers. “Yeah, David has been so excited about this it’s hard for some of it to not have rubbed off on me” Max responded, a little more upbeat than he meant to. “Oh you know you always love doing anything with him and Gwen, you’ll have to admit that someday” Harrison said teasingly. “I have to admit to nothing as long as I plead the fifth... anyway get ready cause I need the lights off to watch neflix properly” Max said sticking his tongue out at his brother.</p>
<p>While the brothers had their conversation David showed Gwen to their room. “Here’s our room!” David said gesturing into the room. Gwen looked inside, it had a few bookshelves, a nice window overlooking the farm, and a MASSIVE bed. It had to have been a king sized at least. “David that bed looks amazing!” Gwen said as she entered and sat her pillows on it. “I thought you might like that... we could have some fun cuddles tonight!!” He said excitedly. “For getting a bed like this I think definitely” Gwen said as she threw her shoes off and jumped on the bed, rolling around in it just to emphasize how big it was. “Now I’m kinda sad we can only stay here one night” Gwen said pouting a bit, really wanting to be able to use the nice bedroom more. “Well, think of it as a reward for the long drive we did, and hey maybe we can come out here longer before camp some summer!” David said with a smile on his face as Gwen snorted.</p>
<p>Gwen laid down and stretched her arms across the whole bed, “this place is definitely nice enough to spend a few days at... so I’d definitely be down to coming back sometime” Gwen was almost giggly at how much she was enjoying this place, especially with how cramped she was in the long car ride here. “Well, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, want to get a quick bit of snuggles in before hitting the sack?” David asked as he took off his shoes and got in bed beside Gwen. “Oh you know it honey, come here!” Gwen said as she hugged him. David embraced her back, the two of them loved each other so much, and it was nice to have a bed big enough for the both of them to be comfortable (not that they weren’t usually, it was just nice having the extra space). The two of them snuggled on all night, falling asleep curled up in each other’s arms, dreaming about how great the next day would be.</p>
<p>..........................................</p>
<p>Max woke up to the smell of eggs. He looked over to Harrison. He was hugging his pillow, and he even forgot to take off his gloves before going to sleep. It was kinda adorable. Max snapped a real quick picture to show Harrison how much of a dork he was later before getting up. Max threw on his usual hoodie and put his shoes on. After checking his hair in the mirror he walked over to Harrison’s bed and lightly shook Harrison saying “Hey Harrison, time to wake up”. Harrison responded, sleep talking “No Nerris, I can’t save Neil yet, the dragon is too powerful, he can be a damsel for a little bit longer”. Max chuckled slightly and decided to write that down, for later. After trying a few more times to lightly wake Harrison up, Max decided there was only one way to succeed in doing so. Max climbed up onto the bed, getting on top of Harrison, took his shoulders in his hands and shook him up and said loudly “WAKE UP YA DINGUS”.</p>
<p>Harrison opened his eyes slightly, noticing that he was being violently shaken. “Give me five more minutes” he said sleepily, after which he felt Max drop him and get off his bed. Harrison repositioned himself to get more comfy and had a small smile of victory on his face when suddenly WHACK he was hit square in the face with a pillow. With the pillow still in his face Harrison muffled out “Ok ok, I’m up, and did you really have to use the tempurpedic pillow?” Max had a wide grin on his face “Of course I did, anyway it smells like David’ cooking breakfast so you better get ready fast”.</p>
<p>After a few minutes of Harrison getting ready (most of which was just him trying to make sure his top hat was perfectly balanced on his head) the two brothers made their way down the grand staircase. They followed the scent of eggs into the small kitchen, where David was standing over a frying pan and Gwen was drinking a cup of coffee. “So what’s cooking?” Max asked curious about the choice of eggs this morning. “Oh I’m making the eggs I always ate here, they’re called Rus-eggs because uncle Drew learned how to cook them from his father Russel! They’re scrambled eggs with white cheddar and onions, I hope you like them!” David said as he finished stirring up the eggs, placing equal amounts onto four small plates. He then placed each plate at one of the seats “Alrighty, let’s eat! The Apple Butter Festival doesn’t start until 10am so we have an hour before we have to leave” David said, getting a forkful of eggs and putting it into his mouth. </p>
<p>Max got himself a cup of coffee (essential every morning in his eyes) and sat back down as everyone ate their eggs. He ate his as well, and enjoyed them a lot... he would have to ask David to make them again at home. The rest of the morning went quietly, Max and Harrison texted their friends (and in Max’s case boyfriend) to let them know how the trip was going. They also goofed off a bit in the yard, seeing how it was a farm out in the woods, there was a lot of space to do so. David and Gwen kept it more mellow, relaxing in the living room, which had a few nice chairs, a couch, and a guitar (which David instinctively gravitated to immediately). David strummed on the guitar for a while as Gwen continued to sip coffee, she enjoyed listening to the mellow beat.  </p>
<p>After almost an hour passed the family went into their respective rooms packed up, and loaded everything into the car. “Alright, does everyone have all of their stuff in the car? I don’t want anyone leaving anything behind here!” David said as he closed the trunk. “I checked the rooms twice, unless some of our stuff is invisible we grabbed it all” Gwen said, still waiting for the full effects of coffee to hit her. “Great! Then let’s get on the road, we have a full, fun day ahead of us!!!” David said, almost leaping into the car, as everyone else followed his lead (though with somewhat less energy).</p>
<p>The car drove back up the old dirt road, and made its way back to the main road of the nearby town. It took a few minutes of driving, but eventually they hit a small burst of traffic, meaning that they were getting close to the center of the festival. Right before they hit the main stretch of town (and where most of the festival was held) David pulled into a church which had turned its parking lot into free parking for the event. After pulling into a spot David unbuckled himself and said “we’re here! I’ll walk all of you through the main attractions here, then if you two want to split off you can go ahead and do that!”. Harrison was almost bouncing up and down from excitement, while David definitely had the most enthusiasm about this event Harrison always loved doing these things with his family.</p>
<p>The family all got out of their car and began walking towards town, being able to just barely see the edge of where the festival was from where they parked. As David led the rest of the family towards the festival, it came more into view. On the left side of the main road there was a small park, filled to the brim with white tents and a small stage. A bit further on that side was a side road, also filled with white tents and three large kettles. On the right was a blocked off road with a poster listing times for events. Behind that road was a large parking lot, filled with food trucks and vendors. The food trucks gave off a smell that made everyone’s mouths water, even though they had just recently eaten. Despite there being so many tents and vendors, it wasn’t quite that busy yet, likely due to how early it still was. </p>
<p>“So let me give you the rundown!” David said turning around to face his family. “Over there is the art and other crafts”, he said pointing at the park with white tents, “Everything there should be pretty neat, and they all sell different fun Knick knacks”. He then pointed to the parking lot “Over here is where all of the food is, it’s all local restaurants and food trucks so I’d suggest trying a few different things out! Right next to it is where the street performances are, I think there might even be a magician later!” David said looking right at Harrison, who got even more excited. “The last thing is those kettles over there, that’s where they make the fresh apple butter, it’s fun to watch them stir, and jar it up, plus you can buy it fresh from the source!” David said with large amounts of excitement. “Now I think we can split up, the only thing is we should all meet up to listen to the band play in the park around 3:00, if you two need any money for food or want to buy something from a tent just find me!”. After he said that the two boys said goodbye and raced off to towards the kettles to see the apple butter being made, leaving Gwen and David by themselves. </p>
<p>“Well, I think we should go see when the street performances are happening!” David said as he and Gwen walked towards the sign advertising as such. “Hmm the Magician isn’t until 12, but it looks like a street band is here in an hour” Gwen said reading through the time slots. “What should we do first?” Gwen asked, knowing they had some time to burn. “Hmm, how about we look at some of the tents over there” David said pointing at the end opposite to the apple butter churns. “Sounds good to me” Gwen responded as they crossed the street to begin looking through the tents. </p>
<p>The first tent had a number of different hats for sale which was... interesting, but not something either David or Gwen was particularly interested in. They went from tent to tent looking at the different items. There was a custom greeting card tent, a tent that sold items repurposed into clocks, and even a tent that made bird statues out of precious gems. While the duo admired all of the art they saw, they noticed Max and Harrison passing them, the two of them seemingly going through he different tents much quicker. Eventually the couple made their way into a woodworking tent. “Oh my goodness this looks great!” David said as he gravitated towards a custom built hiking staff, “I could use this at camp!”. Gwen looked at it, it seemed fairly nice, having been smoothed down and some carvings etched into it before being glazed over. “Yeah that would definitely be pretty neat, go ahead and get it if you like it” Gwen said as he admired some of the other wood carved items throughout the tent. With that, David did indeed purchase the walking staff, and carried it with him out the tent. </p>
<p>After going through the rest of that line of tents, David and Gwen decided to look at the apple butter kettles. “Ooooo! You can smell how fresh it is!” David said, racing over to see the kettles be churned. “Let’s see if they have any jarred yet!”. Gwen was led over to the table where jars of fresh made apple butter were made. “Awesome it looks like they have some! Two please” David said as he paid for, and received, two jars of apple butter. “I hope that’s good, cause we’re gonna need to use a lot of it soon” Gwen said, feeling how heavy one jar was. She liked the taste of apple butter but this much may have been well.... a bit much. </p>
<p>After making their apple butter purchase David looked down at his watch “oh geez it’s almost time for that show, let’s head on over” David said. The young couple walked over to the quickly growing crowed which stood outside a circle of performers. They all had drumsticks and trash cans. “This seems like it will be interesting” Gwen said as her and David attempted to squeeze closer to the front. Soon enough the performers all took up their sticks and began putting on a show, tapping away at different places to some funky beats. David and Gwen couldn’t help but tap their feet along with the beat, it was almost infectious.</p>
<p>A little bit into the show David felt a tug on his shirt, it was Max. “Hey can we have some money to get food?” He asked loud enough for David to hear over the drummers. “Yep! Here you go, remember to give good tips!” David said as he handed Max some money. After they walked away towards the food stands David turned his attention back to the performance. At this point they were getting even more fancy, tossing their drumsticks to each other in time with the beat, sometimes letting them stick in the air for a few seconds before bringing it down with a big BANG on the trash can.</p>
<p>The show went on for another twenty minutes or so, all of which Gwen and David enjoyed. After it was done they decided to take a look at some more of the tents before getting a bite to eat. They looked through all of them, seeing more interesting things, though not much of it caught their eyes enough to buy. That is besides one of the art shops where Gwen sheepishly bought a picture of a hot monster boy, she could never resist them, even after all these years.</p>
<p>After making that purchase (and making sure it was securely in a bag) they headed over to get some food. “I wish we could have gotten lunch with the boys but it looks like the magic show is already starting and you know how Harrison gets with that” David said as they looked for somewhere to eat. They eventually settled on a barbecue place that sold whole roast chicken and brisket sandwiches. Gwen and David decided to get one of each and split it, so they could have more variety. They both enjoyed it a lot (as the bbq itself was from a very nice local restaurant).</p>
<p>After having their lunch the couple decided it would be a good idea to get a good place to sit for the music later. It was still a little bit before it started but if they learned anything from that band earlier it’s that these spaces fill up fast. Since they also wanted to rest a bit since they still had to drive a long way tonight, they took a nice seat near the stage in the grass, laid down and looked up at the fall sky. It was beautiful, and the couple could just keep staring until the kids joined them for the show.</p>
<p>.......................</p>
<p>“Cmon I wanna see these kettles up close” Max said as he and Harrison ran towards them. “I do too! I’m just not as fast” Harrison replied with a pouty face. “Alright alright, I’ll slow down” Max said as he let Harrison catch up to him. They both continued to walk towards the kettles of apple butter. Once they got to them, the wonderful smell hit them, “Ooooo! That’s smells good! We should ask David to get some!” Harrison said looking down into the churning apple butter. “I don’t think we’ll need to ask, if they had any ready by now I’m sure he would have already bought three jars” Max said, knowing his dad well.</p>
<p>After they fully enjoyed watching the making of the apple butter the two brothers began to walk down the tent line, looking in them to see what wares were being sold. Going through the tents they saw several interesting things for sale. After going into one tent Harrison remarked “Oh I think David would love this!” he said pointing to a variety of wooden walking sticks. “Yeah he probably will, I’m sure he’ll buy it sometime today, and if not you wanna pitch in to get it for him as a present?” Max said looking closely at the different wood items for sale. “Yeah sure, but like you said he’s probably gonna buy one himself, he has been wanting something like it for a while” Harrison replied.</p>
<p>After leaving that tent they continued down the line, passing their parents at one point. Eventually they reached the last tent in the line, a small hat shop. Harrison quickly gravitated towards a small black top hat with a red stripe of fabric going around it. “... I love this, it would be perfect for my magic act!” He said excitedly. “Yeah it does look pretty neat, why don’t you try it on” Max said looking at the hat approvingly. “Can I?” Harrison asked looking at the clerk who ran the tent, who nodded in affirmation. With a look of glee on his face Harrison took off his usual hat and put the new one in its place on his head. After looking in a mirror he stated “I love it sooooo much! I’m gonna have to see if David would let me buy it, look ta-da” he said pretending to do a magic trick with it. “You should definitely ask cause you honestly look dope with it, maybe ask during that concert or whatever” Max said as he continued to admire how well the new hat fit his brother.</p>
<p>Harrison eventually put the hat down and thanked the clerk for letting him try it on, letting him know they’d probably be back later. Walking out of the tent Harrison continued “It is just so cool! I love it so much, I mean I like my hat too, but that one looks so sleek!” Harrison said gushing on about that hat. “And I’m sure David will get it for you, by the way do you want to try and get lunch now?” Max asked. “Sure! David is probably over by that band over there since he was looking at the poster earlier” Harrison claimed, pointing at a crowed surrounding some guys playing on trash cans. “Yeah that seems like somethings might watch” Max replied.</p>
<p>The two brothers made their way over to the crowd, listening to the beat as they got closer. Once they made it there Max spotted his tall dad. “He’s over there, I’ll go ask for some money” Max said as he tried to squeeze his way over to David. After a bit of maneuvering he made it close to David, and to try and get his attention he tugged on his shirt. Max got his attention and he asked “Hey can we have some money to get food?” loud enough for David to hear over the guys with drum sticks. “Yep! Here you go, remember to give good tips!” David said as he handed Max some money. Max thanked him and squeezed his way out again. Making his way over to Harrison Max looked surprised “geez he gave us like a hundred bucks, let’s go wild” Max said as he flipped through all the money he was given. “Sure!! Though after this weekend I might not be able to eat again for a while” Harrison jokingly quipped.</p>
<p>The brothers walked over to the food stands, seeing as everyone was distracted by the performers, there wasn’t much of a line anywhere. “It looks like we picked the perfect time, take some and get anything that looks good” Max said as he handed Harrison half of the money “Meet at those tables whenever you’re done”. Harrison nodded in agreement and went to see what there was to purchase. </p>
<p>The first place Harrison came across was an Amish donut stand, from which he ordered two glazed donuts. The next place to catch his eye was a Greek food truck, where he bought a gyro and some Greek fries from. Since he still had some money, Harrison looked around for one more place to buy from, which he found at a fried vegetables stand. He bought one large bucket of fried veggies there and made his way over to the table.</p>
<p>After a few minutes of waiting Max made his way over as well with his spoils. “I see you’ve got some good looking things” Max said setting down his bags. “Yeah, they all looked good! What’d you end up getting?” Harrison asked looking at the bags. “Well, one place had seafood Mac and cheese, one had a bbq sandwich that looked good, another place had a great looking bacon cheeseburger, and then this place just had Stromboli... so I got some of that too” Max said, both brothers eyed all of the food in front of them hungrily. “Looks awesome! Let’s eat!!” Harrison said excitedly. The brothers then began to eat their mini feast, sharing all of the good food that the had found. They seemed to very much enjoy it, much like they had this entire trip. The last thing each of them ate were the donuts “Dude this is ridiculous, it’s like half the size of my head” Max said holding it up for the comparison. “I mean I got them for a reason” Harrison said in a laughing rebuttal.</p>
<p>After they finished all of the food Harrison had an idea “I think I saw on that poster earlier there was going to be a magic show, would you want to watch?” Max asked the magic boy in front of him. “Do you even need to ask? Of course I would!!!” Harrison said with great excitement. The two got together their garbage and threw it away. Then they started their way over to the event space. The drumming performance had ended a little while ago, so the magician was just getting set up. “Well at least we’re here before the crowed” Max said shrugging over the fact that they had to wait a few minutes for the show to start. “Yeah but it’s worth it to get such a good view!” Harrison retorted.</p>
<p>Over the next few minutes a crowed gathered, and soon enough the magician started his tricks. He did many of the usual tricks, in reality he was half comedian as many of them were meant to be funny. Max couldn’t help but crack a smile, but Harrison was overall overjoyed at the whole experience. He loved magic, but he didn’t often get the chance to see one live. Eventually the magician started a card trick, “Now I’m going to need a volunteer from the audience” he announced to the crowed. Many peoples hands shot up, hoping to get a bit more into the fun, including Harrison. After looking through the sea of hands the magician said “You there boy, with the top hat, come here!”. Harrison was shocked but amazed that he was chosen. He walked over to the magician who said “you look like you know a magic trick or two” to which Harrison nodded. “That’s good, right now we will only do a simple card trick, but I’m always happy to see some young magicians out there”. Harrison put on a big smile, and Max realized he should probably record this so David and Gwen could watch later. </p>
<p>“Now look through this deck of cards and make sure they are just a normal deck ok?” The magician asked, to which Harrison nodded, looked through the deck and stated “it looks to be a normal deck”. The magician smiled taking the deck into his hands, “Now, pick a card any card” he said splaying them all out. Harrison chose one near the middle of the deck, it was the three of diamonds. “Now put it back in the deck” said the magician, which Harrison obeyed. “I will shuffle the deck right here, and he will cut it twice”. After getting the deck back from Harrison he pulled one of the cards out of the deck, “is this your card?” He said holding the five of clubs. “No sir it is not” Harrison replied. “Hmm, that’s because it’s really here” the magician said removing Harrison’s hat and pulling out the three of diamonds, “ta-da!” He said to end the trick. Harrison also said a tiny, but audible “ta-da”. After the applause ended the magician handed Harrison back his hat “thank you for volunteering kid, you’ll do great thing in magic”. Harrison was completely overjoyed hearing that.</p>
<p>After getting back to Max (and excitedly finding out the whole experience was recorded) the brothers finished watching the magic show, and realizing the time, made their way towards the stage. A small crowed had gathered over there, but Harrison and Max were still able to spot David in the crowed (even sitting down he was tall). “Hey David, how’s your time at the festival gone?” Max asked as he sat down next to him. “Oh it’s been a blast!! I even got this nifty hiking stick” David replied holding up his new acquisition. “Oooo neat!! That reminds me can we stop by one shop before we leave, I want to see if I can get something” Harrison said, trying to put on a puppy dog face. “Of course!” David said excitedly, “we can do that after the music, which should be starting soon”. Almost on cue, someone stepped on the stage and introduced the band. It was a local band, which seemed to be admired by the town. As they started playing, the small family laid down in the grass and listened to the smooth rock that was playing. It was a bit too loud to relax (like all live music) but it was a nice listen regardless.</p>
<p>The music set went on for around a half an hour. After that the band took a break for dinner prompting Gwen to get up and say “Well, this was a very enjoyable trip, but I think we should start to go on our way now”. David got up as well “I agree, we should head out soon so we can get some headway on getting home, we don’t want to be on the road all of tomorrow now do we!”. With that the whole family got up and navigated their way out of the crowed, getting to where the main line of tents were. “Oh yeah Harrison, you said you wanted to look in one of the tents again?” David asked thankfully remembering before it was too late. “Yeah! It’s over here” Harrison replied racing over to the spot I which the hat store stood. After the family entered inside Harrison showed David and Gwen the small black top hat. “I really want this, I think it will go well with my acts!” He proclaimed hoping that would sell them more. “Well I think this looks great Harrison! How much is it?” David asked the clerk. “Fifty dollars” the clerk replied, for which Gwen quickly pulled out a fifty dollar bill and handed it to him. “Thank you for your purchase and have a nice day” the clerk said as the exited the tent.</p>
<p>Harrison was overjoyed at his new hat, he couldn’t hold his excitement in (however much he tried). Even after they made their way back to the car he was still in wonder at the great new hat he just had been given by his parents. “I know you really like that hat, but maybe just set it down until we get home, you know how long this drive is gonna be” Max said to Harrison as they got into the car. Harrison snapped out of his trance and nodded, still quite excited, but he was able to put the hat away and get buckled in the car. “Alrighty this was a fun day! I think we’re going to drive for a few hours and try to find a motel on the way! Then we can finish the rest of the drive in the morning!” David suggested, with everyone nodding in agreement. Even with David’s unbounded energy, even he was too wiped out by today to do the whole trip home right this moment. </p>
<p>As he pulled out of the parking lot, everyone was thinking different thoughts. David was happy that everyone else seemed to enjoy the trip as much as they did. Gwen was happy about her new art piece, and the fact she got to spend time with David. Harrison was still completely overjoyed at both what the magician said to him, and the fact that his parents gave him a gift that meant so much to him. Max, for all that he would sometimes try to deny it, was just happy to have a family that loved him so much. To have a father like David to take care of him, and that cared enough to take him on a trip like this. As they drove into the sunset Max stared out the window, at the horizon and the sky. He watched as the sun slowly set, and as the moon took its place. He saw the stars begin to appear in the sky one by one, and slowly, over the course of an hour or so, he drifted into his dreams, dreams of the past...</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is just a lil project I’m working on I hope you’ll all like it ^-^</p></blockquote></div></div>
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